Return
by Pernshinigami
Summary: Crossover with Bleach. What happened to the Deathnote characters after they died? What of Light and Misa? What of L, Mello and Near? The Bleach shinigami seem to have an idea! may become yaoi.Current mentioned parings L/Light Mello/Matt others to come!
1. Chapter 1

Deathnote: Return

One note: I will return to Heartsbond when Soucon's Search ends in April. I'm nearly done with 40. Nankurunaisa! No need to worry, nope. In the meantime I will express the belief that given his manner of dress, all that smexy black leather, there is /no/ way that Mello can be straight. And the scariest thing about Light is that we share the same birth year and Eastern Zodiac sign, the fire tiger. XD

If you like this, review and I'll find some fashion in which to continue. I have this profile for Light as an Arrancar that I would /love/ an excuse to use!!

"Pierce Darkness, spawn chaos, Kuroifletcha!!"

Introduction: Disatisfaction

I was completely unsatisfied when the ending of Deathnote was spoiled for me by the guide in volume 13: How to Read. I mean, Light dies, L dies, Misa commits suicide, why? What's the point if there's nothing for any of them after. There can't be a sequel because all the characters are dead. What happened to them all?

One rule is true, when writing crossovers, making one series the past of the other is not a crime, in fact its one of the most often overlooked methods of crossing two series. For example, make Inu-Yasha the past of Ghost in the Shell. You have the chance to show a lot of conflict and drama.

I wanted to bring something out of it, have it come out of the ashes. Light is an antichrist character, it was said that the Antichrist would end his reign in the year 2012. From his ashes a new world would be born.

Then you have Bleach, Bleach couldn't be more different in its approach to death than Deathnote. Both have shinigami. But those who have used a Deathnote can neither go to heaven nor hell for all eternity. And the line "The person whose name is written in this notebook shall die" sets the tone for the entire series.

Soul Society isn't heaven, after all, Aizen talked about ascending to heaven, and his whole goal is to do so and commit regicide to the shinigami royalty.

Hueco Mundo isn't hell. After all, the hollows who committed crimes in their lifetime go to Hell when slain.

No, Soul Society is Summerland, Elysia, and Hueco Mundo is purgatory.

So where would Light and Misa go?

L is dead, so is Mello, but I find it highly unlikely that either would let it all end there. L is too curious. He'd hear about Soul Society from the shinigami who konso'd him. And he'd want to learn everything there was. Mello is too aggressive to give up. And then there's Near, who, when he gets over his introspective nature and comes out of his shell, would, upon his death, likely end up in the Seireitei as well. No, the Journey isn't over for this trio either.

So what happened to everybody?

Dunno, so lets find out!!

The characters deaths are in ascending order from least important (Matsuda) to most important (Light). So everything /is/ out of order.

**Requiem**

What happened? Poor Matsuda, the least appreciated of the former Kira task force. A lot of them were still alive. Or at least were. But as years after the Kira darkness had broken into dawn blew past, more and more of them died, as if Kira's death had cursed all involved in the case.

So Matsuda's ghost walked the streets of Tokyo in the rain. He had no idea what he was supposed to do. He just had this chain hanging from his chest, its purpose was obvious, it had connected his soul to his body. You don't need it anymore if you're dead.

It was dark, and after his first encounter with the masked monsters that ate human souls, Matsuda was leery. He didn't want to meet another. And there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to their appearance, powers or actions. One of the few ghosts he had found said that he should be careful. They were hollows, and only a Quincy or a Shinigami could kill one. The ghost had held up a cross that was apparently a Quincy artifact, but explained that since he'd died he couldn't use it.

So what did he do if he was hit by one in the middle of the night?

A giggle startled him out of his depression. "Hehehehe……. Why so down mister?"

A girl with big blue eyes and bright pink hair had suddenly started bouncing along behind him. She was wearing a black kimono and hakama, an armband with some kind of military insignia, and carried a sword. One that was not only as big as she was, it had wheels on the end of the sheath.

"Huh, when did you show up?" At least he had company in his death.

"Oh, I've been here awhile, but you looked so lost in thought that I didn't want to interrupt, and then when you'd been thinking long enough I thought your head was gonna splode!"

"Uuuuu……."

"I'm Yachiru Kusajishi! I'm the lieutenant for Shinigami Eleventh Division."

"Sh…….sh……. SHINIGAMI??" Matsuda turned to run but Yachiru jumped happily on his back. "HEY, GET OFF, LEAVE ME ALONE!!"

"No can do, the Sotaisho said that I had to take you in. All the k….. the k….. oh what was his name again? OH YEAH! All the Kira detectives were to be brought in only by a Captain or Lieutenant Shinigami."

"Brought………. Brought in where?" Matsuda sputtered.

"To the Soul Society silly." Yachiru patted his shoulder. "What's your name anyway?"

"Matsuda……. I was…….."

"Okay then Matsu Matsu! I was told to Konso you right away. Hold still now!!" Matsuda ducked out of the way of a sword pommel that would have not only Konso'd him but knocked him flat too!

"W…….. w…… wait!! Konso what?? To WHERE??"

"Oh for pete's sake." Something or someone, another female voice, yanked Yachiru off of Matsuda's head. "Sorry about that. Commander General Yamamoto was wondering what was taking her so long. Given that Kusajishi is a shinigami of little brain he sent me to come make sure she was doing her job /properly./"

There was a pause. "GLASSES!!" Yachiru jumped from head to head. "Did you come to Konso Matsu Matsu too! But /IIIIIIIIIII/ found him /fiiiiirst/!!"

"I came to keep you from traumatizing him." Nanao dropped Yachiru on her butt.

"Aaaaw, glasses you're no fun!"

"Ummmmm………. Can you tell me what she was talking about?"

"Oh…….. well that is my job. I'm Ise Nanao, Lieutenant of Shinigami Division Eight. My taichou was sleeping, so I came on my own to help." Nanao sighed. "We live in a place called Soul Society. Its where a majority of human spirits go when they die. There are two kinds of shinigami. Since you've been on the hunt for another kind years ago, well, there are two kinds. The first, Nikkisasshi, exist to end human lives. The second, Seishoken like myself exist to bring humans to the afterlife. Seishoken shinigami live in a fortress known as the Seireitei, and are organized into thirteen separate divisions, each with a purpose or specialty. Each division has a Captain, a Lieutenant, and twenty or so seats. I'm the Lieutenant for Eighth, and Yachiru is the Lieutenant for Eleventh." Nanao explained. "The spell to send a soul to Soul Society is called a Konso. But I can only do so if you want to go."

Matsuda looked around reluctantly.

"Look around Matsuda. The world will recover from Kira's rampage, but that will be a long time from now. For now its in ruins. Find some kind of happiness, start over……." Nanao extended a delicate hand, her slender zanpakuto in her other.

"I…….. I guess I have no where else that I can go. Alright…….." He gulped, taking Nanao's hand and moving within range of her zanpakuto.

"There we go." Nanao planted the Konso stamp on Matsuda's head. "Rest well young Matsuda."

"Bye Matsu Matsu!! I'll see you in Soul Society!" Yachiru waved. "Don't forget to visit!!"

* * *

"What the hell am I doing here? I'm pathetic." A depressed Aizawa was slumped beneath an awning in the market.

"Hmmm? Whatchoo so depressed about?" A man, empty bamboo drink bottle in hand, was suddenly hanging upside down from the awning on level with his face.

"AAAAH, who are you??"

"Aaaaaaah, good question!" He dropped from the awning. "I'm Kaien Shiba, Lieutenant for the Shinigami 13th Division!!"

Aizawa's eyes shot wide. "Ashi ashi……."

"Do you need a tissue?"

"WHAA??"

"Well you were saying 'Ashi, Ashi,' were you going to sneeze?" Kaien asked cheerfully.

"NO. But just…….. a shinigami…….. a reaper?"

"Aaaah, we're not as bad as we sound!" Kaien said cheerfully. "Have a drink!" He offered a spare bamboo bottle. "Its just water, but if you're out in the field nothing's better! Now what's got you so upset?"

Aizawa, poor fro, then caught sight of a mother/daughter pair walking through the market district. The falling expression on his face was enough to tell Kaien what was wrong.

"Aaaaaaah, a pretty lady is that it?"

"Yes…….." That wasn't just sad, it was pathetic.

"Let me tell you a story, starting from my captain, one of the wisest shinigami in soul society." Kaien plunked himself down while the former policeman warily sipped at the water. "My captain, his view on combat is that there are two battles, fights for life, and fights for pride. But my view is that there's a third kind. A battle for the heart. Humans think of the heart as an organ, it keeps blood pumping and anchors the soul to the body, but when life is gone that organ turns to dust, ashes, it becomes part of the Earth. Where are our hearts then? I wanted to know so bad, and when I married the love of my life, Miyako, I discovered the answer. When two people meet a bond is formed between them, for better or for worse. Friends, enemies, loved ones, we leave a piece of ourselves behind with them."

"When the Kira case ended, the dead offered their hearts to the living. I know you were in on it, we were told to keep an especial eye on those involved." Kaien thought for a moment. "So you see, you are free to move on, leave your heart with your loved ones. They will take care of it until you are born again." Kaien said softly.

"Is that why you came? To send me to the next life?" The former detective was completely and totally bitter.

"Aaaaah, its not that bad. The Soul Society is woods, and fields, and the Rukongai is always an interesting place. And if you decide, in the future, to become a shinigami like me………" There was a very angry glare in Kaien's direction. "……… well, maybe not. Can't blame a guy for trying. Its always sunny and green and warm. There's no hunger or disease, though there /is/ food for those who wish to enjoy it. It's a wonderful place. Especially for one whose world crashed down."

"I never thought what I'd do, just knew that I was dead and what was I going to do now?" A pause. "How do I go?"

"Hmmm? To the Soul Society?" Kaien's smile spread into a grin. "I send you with a Konso, it's a special seal, I just stamp you with the pommel of my zanpakuto and away you go." Kaien said airily.

"I……" He had tears in his eyes. Aizawa missed his family, but he was dead? What could he do?

"Your heart is with them, you can safely leave it in this world." Kaien urged gently. "There will be another life, another time, to live again. But for now."

"Yes……." The shimmer of light marked to other spirits in the area, that a konso had taken place. A saddened butterfly fluttered away on the breeze.

* * *

Unlike the two roaming detectives who would pass after, Soichiro had taken up a position outside his former home and /stayed/ there. He had to, he was kinda……… chained there like some sort of conservatively dressed Jacob Marley. Light had only returned twice. He sat, listless and depressed, Earthbound spirits often can't leave what they love behind, it makes them melancholy.

"I'm a failure, as a father, as a detective…….."

The female figure walking nimbly out of the darkness tsked. "Do you really think that?" The female spirit who'd walked from the darkness was quiet, wearing a black and white kimono with an open back and sleeves. A badge on her right shoulder had some kind of insignia on it. Her hair was cut, except for two long, ribbon wrapped pigtails. She wore a short sword behind her, as well as a bag.

"Who are you?"

"Lieutenant Fong, from the Shinigami 2nd Division. My captain had business to attend to, and Chojiro-san wanted to come, but I told him I could meet you alone."

"For what?"

"My superiors have also been following the Kira case, we are helpless to act, but the order went out. Should any member of the anti-Kira task force die, we are to make sure they make it safely to the next world if they wish."

"You mean the afterlife?"

"Yes. Its not that bad actually. Its always temperate, I don't think there's ever been a snowstorm. You don't get hungry, thirsty though, there's forests and mountains if you're the outdoors type. The Rukongai is the main city with the fortress where the shinigami live in the middle, called Seireitei. I'm the lieutenant for the second division, and we're one of the strictest divisions out there, though my Captain's a bit……. Well…… she's the best." Soi Fong blushed. "I was brought up in a stern household, and from what I've read, you weren't such a bad captain at all. Nor was what's happened to your son your fault. Fate will fall where it is, whether its blade or brush. The measure of a leader is how you pick up the pieces and make them whole again. Or that's what I think."

"I don't know what to think….. after…….."

"Listen to me…….. and what I have to say is not nice, but you need to know what will happen. You are, at this moment, an earthbound spirit. Your regrets in life have smothered you in chains like the Jacob Marley of your Earth literature. If you can allow yourself to move on, I can send you on. But if you don't go somewhere, you will become a creature worse than the worst demon you can imagine. Either a Hollow will come along and eat you, or over months that chain will rot and you yourself will become a hollow. A hollow is a monster, a lost soul that hungers to eat other souls, living or dead. Because you are so close to your house, and hollows often attack their loved ones out of anguish at their loss, your family will likely be your first victims."

The man paled. "no…….."

Soichiro, even after all of this, still loved his family. That was what had chained him there. And even in death, he would protect them, even if it meant he had to leave.

"If I send you to the Soul Society, where I live, and its not that bad a place, then you won't change at all. You'd live there, and then be reborn as a human."

"I see…….."

"I have heard your name, Soichiro Yagami. Your devotion was incredible, honorable." Soi drew her blade, and knelt on one knee. "Yagami-taicho, I offer you my condolences. You were honorable and loyal and kind, rest and be comforted, healed, in the next life." She carefully stamped the konso on the saddened human captain's head.

The last thing on Soichiro's face before the man's form shimmered away was a tear. _Forgive me……… Light._ And another spirit disappeared.

* * *

Mello screamed in rage. He'd been attacked by a Hollow. "Hehhehheh……. Little rabbit, that wonderful rage and hatred smells delicious. I can't wait to eat you up!"

Mello quivered, nursing a gash on his left arm. "Go to hell……." He growled.

"YOU FIRST!!" The Hollow, a bull/lion shaped one with a nasty set of fangs on it, charged.

Mello leapt out of the way. Suddenly, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!" There was a flash of pink and straw hat.

The hollow was suddenly dissolving with a roar of outrage. Suddenly the world began to tremble. A massive gate with two blindfolded skulls rose from the ground. The pink blur suddenly snatched Mello up and only stopped about fifty yards away.

"NO, NO LET ME GO!!" The Hollow growled. "LET……. Leave me alone!"

Mello got a good look over the shoulder of the man who'd just saved him. The hollow was being hauled into the gate, mask gone but a human face visible. The creature was roaring in outrage at being denied a kill.

The normally cocky boy was shaking like a leaf when the man set him down. "There, you'll be alright." He stood up straight, looking back at where the skeletal gates were fading away. "I heard there was a nasty one in the area, but I didn't think he was bad enough to merit the gates."

"Who……. Who are you?" Mello was forcing his body to stop trembling, replacing his terrified expression with a glare in short order.

"My names Shunsui, Shunsui Kyoraku. I was sent to come get you. Heard you'd been in a doozy of an accident. We didn't think that any of the other Wammy kids would get themselves killed. I got sent out to look for you."

"What…….. was that thing?"

"Its called a Hollow. We've had far too many of them bound for the gates of hell lately. See, Kira's victims are slowly turning into them. And while most hollows are reincarnated as humans again when slain, those who have committed a capitol crime are sent through the gates of hell." Kyoraku shook his head. "I'm captain of the eighth shinigami division by the way. One of the three oldest. I was asked to send you on to the Soul Society."

"The…. Where? Wait, I used part of that……"

"What? The can't go to Heaven or Hell rule? That's so cryptic that its stupid. The Soul Society, and the realm of the Hollows known as Hueco Mundo are both purgatories. Only shinigami royalty are up in heaven, its their sanctuary. And as for Hell, well, those gates would have found you pretty hard to grab." Kyoraku sighed. "On the other hand, I can only send you to Soul Society if you want to go."

"Give me a chance to get my bearings first." Mello snapped. He was still breathing heavily, pressing the wound on his arm.

"You're bleeding."

"Its nothing!" Mello declared.

"Like hell its nothing." Kyoraku's hand started to glow, and he carefully pressed it to the wound.

"WH……. What did you just do?" The wound was no longer there, gone, replaced by clean skin.

"Its called a Kidou. It's a special kind of magic only shinigami can do."

"Actual, real magic? Show me how!" The demand would have offended Kuchiki-taichou, but not Shunsui. In fact, he had an idea. This fellow would be perfect in Kenpachi's division!

Kyoraku scratched his head. "I can't teach you how, but your spiritual pressure is pretty high. I'll tell you a secret then. In eight months time, the shinigami academy's holding its entrance exams. If you study and work hard for eight months, perhaps you can try for it. I can't guarantee anything, but it gives you something to do!"

"Sounds good, but……. I had a question."

"You're probably wondering why the shinigami you met looks like a monster and I look human."

"Yeah." Mello growled. "That's just the start of it."

"Well, its because there are two kinds of shinigami. The kind you met /ends/ human lives, and the kind that I am brings human spirits to the afterlife and slays hollows."

"I see." Mello kinda did. If there were different species of birds and breeds of cats, there had to be more than one kind of shinigami.

"Well, have you gotten your bearings yet?"

"One more question."

"Shoot."

"What do I do when I get there?"

"You'll be sent to the Rukongai, it's the city of the dead in the Soul Society. It looks kinda like old Edo. You really can go wherever you want, except for the Seireitei. That's where shinigami live. There's woods, forests, fields, mountains, everything outside the rukongai. And since you don't get hungry or sick there's no need to worry about food. Just water and shelter."

A plan was forming in Mello's mind. He didn't want to be stuck in a city. He'd always been more than happy to run around outside, and he'd always wanted to see how far into the wilderness he could get, he was tired of the dreary dirt of the city. And after meeting Sidoh, Mello had realized that he no longer saw the world the way a human did. And after all, he'd been brought up in a city. It was logical for Mello to shift gears and go the path he'd never seen, simply on the principle that he was capricious and contrary.

It wouldn't be that bad.

Maybe he'd see Matt again.

Mello nodded glumly. "I'm ready to go. I have somebody I'm going to look for there."

"Well, I can't guarantee you'll find him."

"I….. I loved him, I know I will. I have no doubt he'll wait for me."

"You sound like my koibito Jyoushiro." Chuckled Shunsui. "Alright Mello, have you made your decision?"

For the first time in his young life, Mello was content. A sense of peace suddenly filled him up. And for the first time, in what seemed like forever, he could stop being Mello, the number 2 candidate for a title he never really wanted in the first place. He could just be…….. "Its Mihael."

"Hmmm?"

"Call me by my name, now that I am dead. Its Mihael Keehl." Mello said quietly. "I……. haven't been called by my name in an eternity, please use it."

"Alright Mihael, are you ready to go?" Shunsui Kyoraku repeated the question.

"Yes, Kyoraku-taichou. I'll see you in eight month's time."

"I don't doubt I will. Then away you go!" Shunsui Kyoraku carefully stamped the Konso on Mello's head.

_Wait for me Matt, I'm coming back to you!_ Mello cried silently.

The form of the human formerly known as Mello dissolved from this earth.

* * *

"Oooooh boy, I'd have thought a detective would try to seek us out!" Ukitake muttered. "If it weren't for the haunted toystore rumor I'd never have known where to look, but it seems his friend Lawliet was right." Ukitake slipped into the now closed toystore. "I just hope a hollow doesn't get to him first. I swear, all of Quilish's charges have a penchant for trouble!"

"Oyeeeee! Little one!" Ukitake walked through the aisles of a traditional toystore. There wasn't an electronic device in sight. They were all wood, or cardboard. There were shelves of tin figures and sets for chess and mancala and go. Decks of playing cards with ornamental backings and faces were displayed in cases. There were even blocks, and rocking horses, craft kits and dolls. "It's a maze in here……. When Lawliet said he was a loner, I didn't think he meant a recluse."

There was a clatter, soft footsteps fleeing. "OYE!! Wait a moment!!" Ukitake started to run, but he began to wheeze. "Damn, if I start running now I'll start coughing again." He straightened up. "I have to show Shunsui I can fend for myself." He dug into a pouch for one of the lozenges Unohana had mixed up for him. Sucking on the soothing coolness of the sweet for a moment, Ukitake felt around him for any sign of his target. "How could one kid hide so well? He's surpressed his riatsu better than most officers!"

There was a soft sniffle, the far end of the store! In the storerooms! There was a back room, a passage not used anymore. Ukitake could barely slip in. "Hello?"

There was another quiet sob. Ukitake slipped into the passage that Near had adopted as a hiding place. "Hello?"

"G'way."

Near had found enough spare portable lights, and even a pair small candles with three lights set in a tin. Ukitake remembered the report. Nanao had been on patrol, using a gigai to interact with the humans and hear their talk.

**Flashback**

Nanao neared the toystore where a group of the employees were gathered near the door. A woman in a miko's uniform was listening to their fearful complaints.

"I saw it plain as day Nerika! A little boy with snow white hair! He looked at me, then ran off!"

"You say it was a ghost?"

"yes!"

"Akizura, you have a high level of spirit energy, that may be the reason why you were the only one who saw him."

"He looked bitter, if glares could kill!"

"I will see what I can do."

"A ghost you say?" Nanao asked. Nerika was somebody she knew, human monks and mikos could recognize her people on sight, even if they didn't yet realize that she was a shinigami not a human ghost.

Nerika turned, pinning Nanao with a stare. "Aaaaaah, Ise, do come and listen to these men whine. I'll tell you what happened."

"I'd be very interested in hearing about this ghost you can't handle Nerika."

"They say that he's a lad with white hair, and a distrustful expression, like a once loyal dog that's been beaten too many times." The Miko replied. "They wished me to find some way of soothing him."

"I see……"

"Nanao, tonight will you help me leave the child some offerings?"

"Yes."

"I'll see you tonight then."

Dusk gathered, and Nanao followed Nerika into the toystore. There was one child from Wammy house that was unaccounted for. The littlest one, Near, the one who'd finished off Kira. They said that every case Near had solved had torn more life and cheer from his spirit, then his health began to fail, and soon the only remaining child of Wammy house passed away from the anguish left over from seeing his friends and loved ones and comrades die fighting Kira, only for him to survive. They say that Near had lost the will to live, wishing only to join his comrades in death.

Nanao had dressed in the ceremonial kimono that Nerika had lent her. Taking the incense censor that she was given, as well as a candle with three wicks, poured into a tea tin, the small hinged kind, for ease of carrying and use. Nanao bowed her head as she walked the aisle.

Nerika's rituals were very free form, meant to soothe restless spirits and comfort them. But if this was, as Nanao expected, the final child from Wammy's house to fall, then it would take a /lot/ to make the elusive one come to any shinigami.

Nanao heard rustling to her right, a flash of someone running away. She called out softly.

"_Into the fire_

_I must have no fear_

_And fight with an aim so true_

_Don't you despair_

_I must pay the price_

_My strength will live on through you."_

The footsteps halted, then slowed. Nanao kept calling out softly in the darkness, she'd ask taichou to come help her later if he wasn't asleep.

"_Into the fire I'm burning_

_I will give all that I have to give_

_Don't be afraid of the darkest hour_

_I'll shine for you." _

Nanao caught the first glimpse, snow white hair, a boyish face, just as that Lawliet boy Captain Urahara thought so highly of had said.

Then Near ran, Nanao found the tiny passageway at the back of the storeroom, but she couldn't get in in the kimono she was wearing. Nanao finished her dirge, she and Nerika leaving the tiny candles at the edge of the passage way.

"Do you think, that did anything Ise?"

"I don't know, I saw him, but he ran away. Don't worry Nerika, I know somebody who can come help him."

**end flashback**

The sight of the set up Near had put together all but broke Ukitake's heart. Near had been in his late teens when he'd died, but Near was back, at last, to the form of the child he had wanted to be again so bad.

He was repeating the dirge Nanao had sung during the blessing.

"_Into the fire I perish_

_I have carried my soul so far_

_Cherish my memory_

_Bright and clear_

_I'll shine on for you"_

The two candles burned a lonely light, obviously a comfort to the little one. And Ukitake gasped, Near had a puzzle upon which three, shadowy figures had been drawn, one male, one female, and one child, with no discerning features on either. A big stuffed toy dog had been added to the collection Near had amassed, big enough to be a pillow.

Near batted at tears threatening to spill from his eyes. And then Ukitake saw what had him so sad.

Tiny finger puppets, three of them, little likenesses of L, Mello, and Watari, the three tiny figures had been so lovingly made, it showed how badly the little one missed them.

"You can see them again." Ukitake said quietly.

Near whirled around, falling back against the stuffed dog in the cramped space. "Who…… who are you?"

"I'm Ukitake….. Lawliet, and Mihael, they sent me to come get you."

"Are you an angel?" Near sniffled.

"No, simply a gentler kind of shinigami." Ukitake said quietly. He felt the itch that meant he probably had only a few hours before another attack came on. A soft cough had Ukitake's sleeve flying to his mouth. "Sorry, its dusty in here."

"You're sick."

"Well….. I have been for quite awhile."

"I didn't know shinigami got sick."

"aaaaaah, well, our Nikkisashi cousins don't. But a seishoken like myself will live forever, provided we don't die of illness or injury." Ukitake explained.

"Oh."

"Little one, you can't stay here forever."

"Please just let me be." Near said quietly. "It hurts too much, to even think about it. And its cold, too cold."

"Here….." Ukitake carefully draped his haori over Near's shoulders. "Heeeey, you look in awefully bad shape."

"The puppets….." Near protested as Ukitake tried to help him up.

"Take them with you." Ukitake offered. "I can wait for you to gather up your things."

Near started to shake. Ukitake realized that Near was in worse shape than he thought. He was /going/ to konso him and tell him to meet himself and Lawliet and Mihael at the entrance to the Seireitei, Mell... well, Mihael had recently graduated into the eleventh division. Kenpachi was seriously considering grooming him for a seated position. Lawliet had risen quickly to the fourth seat division in the twelfth. But in the shape he was in, if he landed in the wrong part of the rukongai, Near would be eaten alive.

Ukitake watched as Near gathered up the three puppets, shoving them into his pocket. Snap, snap, the two candles were closed, their lights snuffed out, and they entered his pockets as well.

"Where are you taking me?" Near asked, as he wormed his way out behind Ukitake, the haori draped over his shoulders.

"I'm taking you to Unohana-taichou, she's the head of our medical unit. You look like you could use the peace and quiet of the fourth about now."

"I want to see them again, please." Near begged quietly, clasping the haori closed over his body.

"I'll send a message ahead telling your friends to meet us at the 4th, even if you say you don't need it, I'm going to need attention myself soon." Ukitake started wheezing again.

"Don't get sick on me now," Near said quietly. "Please, take me to them."

Ukitake looped an arm over Near's shoulders, quietly steering the young one out of the store. Ukitake took out his cellphone. "Lawliet, I've found Near."

"Have you konso'd him?"

"If I konso'd him, the emotional state he's in he'd be mangled by the time he came out of the rukongai."

"Is Near-kun injured?"

"Just in spirit, he's fatigued, grief stricken and cold. I'm taking him to the 4th division to rest, and I'll need Unohana-taichou myself soon."

"Understood, Mihael and I are enroute." The line was cut rather rudely. Was Lawliet Eru-san annoyed a little?

Near handed Ukitake back his haori, but as the Senkaimon gates rose up, Ukitake wrapped an arm and his haori around the young Near, ready to pick him up if he faltered. He could feel that at this point, Near was fatigued enough he might stumble midway through. How had such a vibrant personality been reduced to depression so quickly?

"Well, here's the senkaimon. Stay close Near, don't look back and don't stop."

"Don't look back, don't stop." Near repeated dully. "take me to them, take me home."

The next day, when Nerika found the puzzle of a family with a boy wrapped in their arms, she knew what the little boy spirit haunting her friend's store had wanted.

He just wanted a family, and a home.

* * *

One L Lawliet was dead, yes, but that did not stop the insatiable former detective from wandering around. After all, he was dead, but he was still thinking, did the world look any different?

He'd been wandering from neigh unto a month, and while the lack of sweets was annoying, the abundance of new information was enough to keep him engaged.

His first question was this, there had to be something after death besides wandering the Earth.

Well, there were many answers to that. The shinigami came to get you. That was the general consensus among the other ghosts he met. _So where did you find a shinigami?_

You didn't. They found you. Their patrols were sent to 'konso' spirits at random. If they found you, props to you. There was a whole afterlife ahead of you.

L didn't want to meet a shinigami just yet. He heard rumors that interested him.

For example, Kira's victims, as they piled up, were becoming Hollows. There was very little lean time in between. Usually it took months one of the older Pluses had said. But these were becoming hollows in a matter of weeks. The /overload/ had all the shinigami stressed, and rumor had it that these "Kira Hollows" were super strong. Far stronger than was normal. L had better watch out.

_Okay, so what was changing the Kira hollows? What about Kira's power was turning them that way?_

And then L actually met a hollow. It was a small one, new. L was barely able to get away. He'd used a capoeira kick to knock it dazed before making a run for it.

It was dark, L had simply walked in a straight line, as he'd been doing for the past month.

But this night, this night a man was walking in the opposite direction, towards him. L paused, eyes watching the oncoming figure. L had developed an uncanny ability to sense the presence of those in his immediate vicinity. What else was he to do? There were all those hollows in the area. The only way to survive was to learn how to sense spirits and avoid them.

He'd noticed something also, his kicks and punches were getting faster. Once, when he'd had to use one, he actually noticed a flash of light follow his strike, almost like lightning crackling the air.

The oncoming figure wore geta, the clack of wood was obvious. He wore a long lab coat behind him, with an odd black and white patterned boarder. Underneath, the man wore a black and white hakama and kimono. He carried a sword. His face was sorta, well, he definitely had a five o clock shadow. He had pale blonde hair that flopped and stuck out every which way. His eyes were sparkling, but they looked kind of like……. His expression reminded L a little of himself.

He drew up close to L, and spoke. "Are, are, they weren't kidding when they said the famous L was hard to find." He said with an almost mocking grin.

"You know who I am, why are you here?"

"aaaah, but I think you've already heard of the shinigami. I hear you've been asking around about us."

"If I wanted to be found just yet, I would have let you find me." L stated. "Though now that I think about it, I'd like to know how you found me anyway."

"aaaaah, I'm hurt! Especially……… with that spirit pressure you've been building up. I'd have to have been blind and deaf! And even Tousen-taichou can see without his eyes. You must have been fighting a great deal, in order to have built up the strength you have."

"I have nothing else to do but practice, unless you can suggest something. You wouldn't have shown yourself unless you wanted something from me." Maybe he could weedle some cake out of this strange shinigami while he was at it. After all, if Raito's Ryuk could eat apples, maybe human shinigami had food?

"I want nothing."

"Truly? I find that hard to believe." L paused. "You look as if you've arrived in full regalia, you haven't even introduced yourself and you're attempting to be friendly. From what I've heard from 'Asking around' a shinigami would only do that if they've come to send a spirit to the Soul Society."

"Close, close, aaaaaah, nothing does get past you." The man smiled. "I am Captain Kisuke Urahara, of the Twelfth Division. I'm the head researcher for the shinigami." He chuckled. "I'd heard of your kick, the one that knocked a hollow senseless? The kick that hit Kira and kept going, that's what the spirits around here are calling it. They said it crackles like lightning. When a hollow shows up, most Pluses just run, they don't fight back." Urahara twittered. "A plus out here in the middle of nowhere. Very few of them ever develop an attack technique of their own. In fact, its almost unheard of. When I heard of it. I had to see it for myself." Urahara's eyes twinkled kindly.

"I see, so I'm a scientific curiosity to you?" L asked, in a monotone.

"No sense of humor I see, sadly."

"I'm not interested in living in a boring, rural, backwater city thrown back into the Edo era. Not as just another face in the street. There is nothing in a life that has no mental stimulation."

"I see, but why….. why of all things, should you be just another face in the street when you can be a shinigami?" Urahara suggested. "The mind that cracked the secret of Kira, but fell in the line of duty. That is something I wouldn't mind having in my division."

"You came recruiting?" L sounded almost amused.

"Aaaaaah, the one who will not be ridden."

"I have issues I need to work out for myself before I do anything. It sounds cliché, but the one known as Light "kira" Yagami, the one who had me killed. I…….. I allowed my feelings for him to cloud my judgement, he caused more damage than a mere heart attack. I'm trying to….. I'm trying to get over it." L had the barest tremor in his voice, and he looked at the ground as he said this. "I will not be so weakened again."

"I see…….." Kind eyes noted the slight tremor. "……… the killer who broke your heart. You and he danced a tango that should never have fallen flat. And yet it did." Urahara sighed. "L-gaki, there is nothing wrong with love, or heartbreak. It proves that you are human. Your answer came, it's a pity you couldn't have the love you wanted so much. Are, are, I have had my share of koibito's, especially Kurosaki-kun, but never been attacked by one, though my best friend once threw a stove at me." Yoruichi had, indeed, gotten angry one time when she'd made food for Urahara, which had tasted horrible.

Poor getaboshi had said so, and a then young Yoruichi had thrown the very stove she'd cooked the meal on at Urahara. Yoruichi's cooking had since gotten better, but the memory still left the Shihouin shape shifter in stitches.

"People will do, what they foolishly will do. There is little you can do to keep them from doing so." Urahara offered the best advice he can. "L who loved Light, will you come to the Soul Society with me? I can take you directly to the Academy, if the path of a shinigami is one you choose to walk."

L considered, he looked around the streets around him. _Look around Lawliet, the world is falling apart. The two will take care of things for you. They will finish him off. Near will do what must be done. You need a future, elsewhere. And there will be other cases, beyond the end of life._

The look in those dark orbs was guarded. "I'll go."

"Well then, there's no need for me to konso you, you'd get lost in the Rukongai." Urahara held out his fingertip. A black butterfly fluttered out of the sky. "A Hell Butterfly, a far more reliable messenger than a carrier pigeon." He turned to the butterfly. "Commander General, I have a new recruit for the Academy if you wish to test him. The rogue L finally decided to join us. We're coming through immediately."

The gates opened, and L followed Urahara to the Seireitei, and cases yet to be solved.

* * *

Light and Misa had wandered, a good long time, until they'd drawn the unlucky number.

That number was 5.

For Aizen, enjoying his new reign as 5th Division Captain, was only then plotting what he would do with the ongoing research in Soul Society, research that would become the Hougyoku.

As things stood, Aizen was just becoming friendly at this point. Officially, it was just him and his lieutenant, Ichimaru Gin. But instead of Konsoing souls, he brought hollows along with him.

He wasn't saving souls, he was giving fallen ones a free meal.

Light and Misa just happened to be his victims.

Nikkisasshi, book and brush shinigami, had ducked in and out around them ever since their deaths. Even Ryuk had made an appearance. Though the two had been on angry terms ever since Ryuk had killed Light.

This particular evening, Ryuk had brought Zelogi a friend of his who resembled a skeletal Indian brave, and a younger shinigami, Mirai, who looked for all the world like Ryuk, but with diamond hard scales stained midnight sapphire, with dragon like wings and a spined dragon tail along for the ride. Ryuk had introduced her as his adopted sister in arms since they looked so alike, how do you like them apples? Speaking of which, had Light spotted any recently?

At the time, Light had yelled. "NO!! I HAVEN'T SEEN ANY GODDAMNED APPLES!! AND EVEN IF I HAD, I WOULDN'T HAVE GIVEN THEM TO THE ONE WHO KILLED ME!!"

Bad idea. Coming along that is. Worse idea yelling. Ryuk had only been trying to be nice in spite of everything. And Mirai was of a far gentler temperament than he.

Ryuk charged with a yell, his shimmering raven like wings bringing him at the nearest hollow in a Kamikaze run. "LIGHT! RUN!"

"Misa, this way." Mirai grabbed the girl away, scooping her up and shooting in low to the ground. Sapphire wings beat, struggling for altitude. "RYUK!!"

Zelogi spread his own bony wings, shooting in Ryuk's tailwind.

The Hollow caught Ryuk in its massive jaws. "Bad idea." Aizen growled.

"RYUK!! ONIISAN!" Mirai wailed.

"Fly…….. away……. Imooto." Ryuk growled, the hollow closed its jaws, the crack of bones breaking tore the starless night.

"GET MISA OUT OF HERE!!" Light yelled, then whirled at the sound of Ryuk's bones breaking. "Ry…….. Ryuk………" Light's eyes shot wide, nothing had been able to harm Ryuk, not bullets or anything. Even though Ryuk had been the one to kill him, something in the demon broke through then.

The hollow swung, Ryuk screamed as he was thrown free against the nearest wall. Zelogi was swatted away like a fly. BOOM WHAM…….. "Oniisan……" A shinigami very rarely cries, but it was tears falling from Mirai's eyes no mistake.

"Mirai……. Go back." Misa said quietly.

"But Light said to go." Mirai was quaking in fear. "The hollows will eat you."

"Ryuk is your brother……… and I will not. leave. Light. GO." Misa started to cry, leaning against Mirai. "A long time ago, a shinigami saved my life. Now its my turn to save a shinigami." Misa sobbed. "Don't worry about me, GO!!"

Mirai turned, disobeying her brother. "Thank you Misa…….."

She dove low for a kamikaze run, she did not see the flying hollow that blindsided her. "ONIISAAAN!!" Mirai wailed as she was half crushed from the force that hit her. "Oniisan………" She groaned in pain, wings fluttering weakly.

Misa screamed, a hollow directly below on the ground opened its mouth. Gulp. Misa was eaten in one mouthful.

"MISA!!" Light cried, looking up at the one woman he hated, seeing her eaten. He hadn't wished that on anyone.

"Raito…….."

"Ryuk!!"

Ryuk was still conscious. Light rushed over. "Ryuk……."

"Raito." Ryuk said quietly. "I wanted…….. I wanted to know the same….. the same as Rem……." His raspy voice was barely audible. "But I could never shine…….. as bright as she did……… please Light. Just run."

"Ryuk, please…….. get up……. I'll do anything…….. just get up." Light, for the first time since the whole Kira mess began, had tears in his eyes.

"Even…….. give me apples?" Ryuk asked faintly.

"All you want, a whole bushel……."

"I'll be alright in a few hours." Ryuk said huskily. "But if you're eaten you won't be. Misa came back to try and save you. Don't let her have died for you again."

"Ryuk…….. I can't lose you too."

"Light, your death gave me centuries to live. I will survive long after this battle. You need to run."

"How very touching, a boy and his carrion eating mocking bird. This is Kira? YOU'RE PATHETIC." Aizen growled.

"I'm not pathetic……." Light snarled. "Your monsters ate and smashed the few friends I have left. I don't care if I burn in eternal damnation. THIS ENDS!!" He rushed at Aizen.

Aizen didn't even have to unsheathe his sword. Light was snapped up by the hollow standing on Aizen's right, his screams echoed into the night.

"Yes, Light Yagami, it does." Aizen said quietly.

"You are a monster…….. Aizen-teme……" Ryuk hissed, "……… burn and die." A deathnote cannot kill a shinigami, /any/ shinigami. That included Aizen, Ryuk was helpless to attack.

"Not before you Nikkisasshi scum." Aizen spat on Ryuk's face, and the raven who had never shown any remorse or concern, had a single tear roll down his cheek before he passed out. _Raito……. Go…..mena….sai_

But Light knew only pain, then oblivion……..


	2. Samsara

Return

Notes: The chapter title comes from the Buddhist name for the cycle of reincarnation. This chapter takes place 200 years after the main Deathnote timeline. All the characters are either Shinigami, Vaizard, Arrancar or reincarnated human.

**Samsara**

"CATCHIT MATSU!!" Karin bellowed out as she shot the soccer ball towards her classmates.

The littlest boy currently on the field, Karin's age but kinda a dope, actually stumbled over the ball. "I GOT IT!!" FWOOOOM.

The local team captain, Soichiro, managed a lightning fast tackle. "Too slow!"

"Matsu you idiot!" Karin winced as the third boy, Aizawa knocked his teammate upside the head.

"OOOOWWWW! I can't help being clumsy!!" Matsuda whined.

"That's why you're all here!" Karin motioned the boys in. "Matsuda, you didn't get hurt from that tackle did you? 'chiro hit you like a lightning bolt!"

"I'm fine, but we're never gonna make the team at this point."

Karin was /very/ good at soccer, good enough that when two of her classmates, Matsuda and Aizawa, had approached her asking for help in making the team, Karin had agreed to help. Hitsugaya had promised to come if his duties didn't interfere, and Karin had convinced the Middle School team captain, a 6th grader named Soichiro, to help her tutor the other two.

Hitsugaya hadn't shown up yet, but that was no reason not to get started, so the four of them were playing a two on two game.

"That's why you're here. I wonder where Hitsugaya went to." Karin sighed, looking in the direction Hitsugaya normally appeared from.

* * *

The trio of shinigami had donned gigai and were watching from the ridge. They were under the shade of a tree, and at the distance they were from Karin their faces were not visible.

"It looks like things came full circle huh Ryuuzaki?" One of the two blondes watching the scene asked. An all too familiar scar marred his face, though he looked a little bit older.

"It would seem so, yes Mihael." The taller of the trio's face was blank.

"I can't believe those three found each other again." The smallest of the three, with hair as pure white as Hitsugaya's commented, a small smile on his face.

"I can believe it, look at us, we each hold the 'unlucky fourth' seat in our respective squads. You're in 13th, I'm in 11th, and Ryuuzaki's in 12th."

"I may not be in Twelfth division much longer Mihael." The tallest of the three said in a monotone. "My loyalty is to Urahara, he is no longer captain. Kurotsuchi-taichou is a competent professional, but an incompetent leader."

"Wait, so what the hell are you going to do?"

"I am not yet at a Captain level, I have applied for the Liutenant position of either the 5th or 13th divisions. Ukitake-taichou is physically weak, but his leadership skills are more than adequate."

The scarred blonde watched the game, knawing on a largish chocolate bar. "You don't like Kurotsuchi-taichou do you?"

"I trust him about as much as I would trust the Yagami." The tallest of the three stated coldly. "He is intelligent, skillful, but a man who turns his men into bombs, who infects them with bacteria that could allow him to spy on and track them is untrustworthy."

"Oh." There was a heavy silence between the three shinigami.

"Matsuda is as stupid as ever." The littlest pointed out as Matsuda made a shot and tripped.

"That's not nice blockhead." The scarred blonde corrected.

"Who is that playing with them?" The tallest wondered.

"I believe she is one of Kurosaki-san's younger sisters." The smallest supplied. "Ukitake-taichou was the one who deputized Kurosaki Ichigo, he said that Kurosaki was the son of one of his former students, and that Deputy Kurosaki also had two younger sisters."

"Really? I can sense that her spiritual pressure is very high for a child her age."

"I was very small."

"You were dead." The tallest of the trio pointed out.

Of the trio above, the scarred blonde seemed to be the only one able to smile. The other two both had blank looks on their faces, indeed, the scarred blonde hadn't seen either of them smile in centuries.

Ever since the days of the demon known as Kira, neither of the other two had smiled, and the scarred blonde had not laughed once.

"There is Hitsugaya-taichou." The tallest pointed out the white haired figure walking over to the field.

"OYE!! Toushiro!!" Karin called cheerfully. "I'll play you one on one! Lets show these rookies how to play soccer!"

"Aaaae, Kurosaki-san, please don't be so loud." Hitsugaya told them. "But I could use some stress relief." Hitsugaya held his hand out expectantly in front of Soichiro. "Tag out." He insisted.

"Rude," Soichiro stated. Slap. Tag out occurred.

"Oyeeee! Here I come Toushiro-chaaaan!" WHAM.

The game began in earnest. All three students gawked at the speed with which Kurosaki and Captain took the field. Before long the speechless trio of boys witnessed Hitsugaya's 'flip kick' a soccer trick that Hitsugaya did when he wanted to be a show off, but wouldn't admit it. The cheering was wild.

By the time Hitsugaya and Karin were finished, Hitsugaya kicked the ball back to Soichiro. "Tag out, /that/ is how you play soccer."

The boy got just as riled as he would have in his previous incarnation. "Who are you? That you're able to play like that?"

"Hmmmm? My name is Hitsugaya Toushiro. Didn't Karin tell you she'd invited me?"

"Yes, she did, but she didn't give me a name, Hitsugaya-san." Was the distrustful return.

"aaaaah."

* * *

The ripping noise, like the sky had been unzipped, sounded from three miles off and behind them to the north.

The taller of the trio pulled out his cellphone, and a tiny container like a pez dispenser. The other two did the same. A cat, (the scarred blonde), a duck (the middle one) and a rabbit (the littlest) (1)

They sent a text to Hitsugaya and any other shinigami officer in the area. "Gargantua spotted, moving to investigate." And off the three shinigami went, warning their gikon to look after their gigai.

They soon noticed that they weren't the only Shinigami rushing to the area.

* * *

Ichigo was annoyed in the extreme when his badge and Renji's cellphone went off. They were helping Uryu move into his new apartment along with the other shinigami Ichigo knew and his friends. The war wasn't over, but Orihime was safe, her name cleared. Aizen had lost his ninth, fifth and seventh Espada. His eighth espada, Szyael, was in a coma, and would not come out until the drug from Kurotsuchi wore through his system. Orihime had reported that they did have an advanced healer, one Zephly Ophiucus, who was not an Espada but had equal standing due to his position as Lead Healer.

"Sado, Orihime, Rukia, no need to trouble yourselves."

"Renji and I will go."

"Me too." Ikkaku chimed in.

"And I'll go too. Don't worry Orihime, I'll come right back." Matsumoto assured the other girl.

It was agreed that after the incident, Matsumoto and Rukia would take turns guarding Orihime from further attack.

So their quartet used Mod Soul and Gikongan to leave their gigai and body. WOOSH, WOOSH, WOOSH, WOOSH! Ichigo, Renji, Ikkaku and Matsumoto rushed out.

Ichigo let out a whoop of glee as they ran over the rooftops towards the park where the gargantua had touched down. A few hollows were found along the way, and each one took less than a second to dispatch.

"Hey! Renji who're they over there?" Ichigo pointed, a trio of Shinigami were moving parallel to them over the rooftop.

"Huuuuuuh, I recognize our division's fourth seat!" Ikkaku said cheerfully. "OYE!! Mi-kun!" He called out through cupped hands.

"Ikkaku-kun!" The third in their formation, a golden blonde with a positively horrible scar on his face and wearing gothic jewelery over his kimono waved back. "We're on our way to a fight, how about you?"

"Not if I get there first!!" Ikkaku hollered.

"Oh no you don't!!" The blonde broke formation and sped up running parallel to Ikkaku, the two trading glares and insults and trashtalk about who would make it to the battlefield first.

"What's with them?" Ichigo asked.

Renji laughed. "Rivalry, but I recognize that trio."

"Really Renji?"

"Yeah, Ichigo, in school did you learn about a case a little over 200 years ago? A mass murderer named Kira trying to take over the world."

"Hmmm? Yeah, he was caught by the famous detective, Near, and died in the struggle to capture him." Ichigo nodded. "I learned about it in history class."

"The littlest of that trio is Near."

"WHAT?? NO WAY!!" Ichigo squeaked. "What rank is he? What division? The 2nd right? They're the intelligence division right?"

"Nope, he's not one of Fong-taichou's. The famous detective, L, known to us as Ryuuzaki, is the 4th seat for the Twelfth division. He's the head of their formation. Behind him, Near is in the 13th Division, also 4th Seat."

"Wait….. I spent time at the 13th. I'm their deputy. I never met him."

"That's not surprising, as an administrator, Near is top rate. But he only rarely goes outside, most of his time is spent within the division building itself." Renji explained. "I've never met him in person before."

"Really?" Ichigo asked. "So the third one is……"

"Eleventh Division 4th Seat, Mihael Keele." Renji identified him. "I was in the same division before I joined 6th. Mihael's got enough fight to him he could probably take on most lieutenants, but he's too brash to take a real leadership position."

Slowly the two formations merged. "You picked up our text message?" Ryuuzaki asked bluntly.

"No, we picked up the red alert from Soul Society, we have arrancar up ahead." Renji reported.

"I have not yet gotten to fight an Arrancar." L said thoughtfully. "Any information that may be useful?"

"It took me, taichou, Ikkaku and Yumichika with our limiters removed to take down one Espada." Matsumoto told him. "And size is /not/ a measure of their strength."

"I got the crap kicked out of me by the fourth and fought the 6th to a draw." Ichigo added. "And I needed to use my bankai to even get close to number four."

"They're fond of shouting "suerte" when they think they've got you." Renji muttered in disgust.

"Fortune, then a lot of them speak Spanish." Near asked in his usual inquisitive fashion.

"Fluently." Matsumoto agreed. "A lot of their attack names and zanpakuto names are katakanized Spanish."

"Ummm……. They lost numbers nine, five, and seven. And their eighth espada is currently in a coma and on some machine that's supposed to scrub that poison Kurotsuchi taichou put in him out of his blood. Until then he's dead to the worlds." Ichigo added.

"You're lucky Ichigo. I wanted to go." Ikkaku complained. "Captain Zaraki was all excited about having fought an Espada."

"You fought an Espada." Ichigo pointed out.

"But I /never/ got to go to Hueco Mundo!" Ikkaku replied.

"Hang on, hush everyone, we're there." Near pointed. Beside him Mello about wiggled in impatient glee.

Seven shinigami crept to the edge of a small building where they could peer down at the impact site.

Two Arrancar forms were half conscious on the ground, slowly coming too. One female, one male. There was a low growl. "Misa, Misa get up. We have to move." The man had his back to them, rubbing at his eyes and forehead. "Aizen will come after us before long. Come on!"

"Misa misa sleepy. She need to rest."

"You can hibernate when we're someplace safe. Come on!" The boy turned, hauling the girl to her feet.

Ichigo got a good look, red hair. Blood red. Foggy blue eyes, very pale. Almost attractive looking. A crest of black scales started between his eyebrows, scales shaped like feathers that fell around his body in an armored cloak that shimmered in the sunlight. His Arrancar mask had feathers on one side kind of like Yumichika's and a demon's horn on the other. His zanpakuto was a rapier, elegant, with four feathers forming the guard, blood red wrapping for the grip, and a bronze hilt with a deep red ruby on the pommel. His hole was right over the sternum.

The girl looked covered in bone. Her hair was a mixture of pink and deep black, pulled into pigtails. Her mask was a crown, no, a tiara with both a dragon's skull and a cat's skull. An eyepatch was a second mask piece covering one eye. Shoulder plates tapered into three points started plate armor that protected her chest and back, plate armor that dipped into a low collar that showed just the barest hint of cleavage. She was dressed in a skirt beneath the armor, ankle length. Her zanpakuto was unusual in that it was a wrist blade, almost like a bayonet, attached to her right wrist. Her hole was in her throat, just like Ulquiorra.

"Inquire, Seijitama(2)." Hissed L.

There was no warning. L's shunpo was so fast Ichigo could barely catch it. "Die Light Yagami!" L's look was bitter, feral, almost murderous. L's initial release was a celtic claymore, very long, very narrow, and enough to hack the strange Arrancar's head off.

"NO!" Ichigo cried, ready to dive to the other shinigami's rescue.

The arrancar turned, then raised his wrist, deflecting the blade. "Ryuuzaki……." Foggy steel and blue eyes widened, half in fear, half in pain, half in shock, and there was something anguished and unreadable beneath it all.

WHAM! CLANG! WOOSH! CLANG! CLASH! It didn't matter that his attacks did nothing. L was going berserk. His dark eyes were blazing in outrage.

The Arrancar barely did anything, simply deflected each attack, falling backwards.

"Raito-kun! Ryuuzaki-kun don't!" The female cried out in fear. She lunged forwards to try and help them.

Matsumoto hauled her back. "Stay away, he's not going to hold back like that." Matsumoto warned.

"Raito-kun! Raito-kuuuuuuuun! Don't hurt him!"

The male Arrancar was blocking every single attack. But he never fought back, never did more than stop the blows.

"I should step in and…." Ichigo began.

"No." Near told him.

"Why? He's going to get creamed!"

"Light isn't attacking." Mello observed.

"Yeah, I know. Its not like him." Near grumbled.

Down below, Light's mind was both racing and screaming in pain. L, L, the one he'd loved, the one who'd died. (3)

Light had fallen in love with L during the Yotsuba case, become completely devoted to him, would march into fire for him.

But the trap Light had set as Kira had already been put into motion. By luring Rem into headquarters, reviving Kira and taking Rem's Deathnote, Light had had no way, none, of preventing L's death.

Years of anguish and depression, centuries of losing himself in the hollow's animal mind simply so that he could forget.

Forget L, forget murder, forget a God named Kira and delusions of a new world.

Forget Light Yagami, the child prodigy whose destiny took a cruel twist when he picked up a notebook and began to write.

Light made no move to fight back, no move to speak. Nothing he could say would excuse what he did. He just stood there and took it. Even when L's zanpakuto began to leave bruises on his wrists, then cuts.

Suddenly L's zanpakuto fell away, it had been jarring his hands he'd been hitting so hard. So the kicks and punches began, in that beautiful, graceful, almost dancing style L used for hand to hand combat.

Time outside them seemed to stop. Light knew nothing but blocking every kick and punch that he deserved from the man who had every right to do it.

L's attacks got weaker, and weaker, slowing. Light focused on his face, for the first time since L had started attacking him. L was crying, the great L's eyes were filled with tears.

And suddenly the last kick fell, L fell over. Light caught him and still the detective struggled, breath heaving in agonized sobs. Light felt tears rolling down his cheeks too. One of them fell in a soft mass of raven hair and suddenly L stilled. He flung his arms around Light and started crying, and somehow couldn't stop.

Light enfolded the other in his grip, the glittering black cloak enclosing them both. "Why." L asked quietly. "Why? I loved you. Why?"

Light closed his eyes in pain. "Just before I went into confinement, I handed the notebook off to Rem. I lost my memories on purpose. The trap was already in motion when I went in. And there was no way I could stop it, even after I was willing to walk through hell for you."

L's eyes closed, sobbing he let himself fall as deep into Light's arms as he could. "Raito….." He felt the hole beneath his chest, where as a hollow Light's heart had been ripped out. "I couldn't forgive you. My mind, I was stuck. I couldn't think. All I could ask was why." L was wrapped into Light's arms in a fashion he never could have in life.

Light couldn't stop crying. This brought back every demon to the forefront, everything he couldn't forget, even though he'd managed to numb it away with the Hollow's instincts, even with alcohol when he'd taken arrancar form recently. None of it worked.

"What happened." Renji demanded of Misa as the group clustered around her.

"Raito-kun and Misa misa were eaten." Misa sounded half asleep. "Misa misa needs to sleep, Misa Misa is tired, weakened….." Ichigo realized that Arrancar ichor was dripping from small wounds in places. "Misa misa will be alright….." Her eyes fluttering closed. "……. Dream, Klararyuhueso, Esqueleto Dragón Hybernation (4)." Misa sprouted armor that resembled a skeletal dragon as her hollow form released itself. Then she curled up into a ball. The armor forming it smoothed over until she was a perfect ball. A golden eye swiveled into view on the ball and then disappeared.

"What's the deal with that?" Renji wanted to know.

"She's sleeping I think." Near circled Misa warily.

"Wonderful time for a nap." Ikkaku muttered.

"What about /them?/" Ichigo asked. "What's wrong with them."

"A long time ago, L loved a man named Light Yagami." Near said quietly. "The Light Yagami also known as Kira, who passed away during the final battle at the Yellow Box Warehouse."

Ichigo whirled, "The biggest serial killer of all time becomes an Arrancar, I'm seriously not liking this one bit."

"Its just like the Yagami-teme." Mello muttered, digging into a pouch hanging from his obi. "I know I had some chocolate somewhere."

"I don't think so, Raito is crying." Near pointed out.

Ichigo's eyebrow twitched. "You're eating candy at a time like this?" This trio of shinigami was flat out /weird!/

"Keele-san always eats chocolate when stressed." Near explained.

Light blinked, after all of his hysterics, L had fallen asleep in his arms, face streaked with tears. He scooped L up, retrieved his zanpakuto with a grunt. "Can one of you move Misa? We have to get out of here. Aizen will send a Search party before long."

"I think the only way we'll be able to move her like this is with my Bankai." Renji muttered. "Between us we don't have anything else big enough."

"What about me?" Near offered.

"Hmm? You have a bankai Near?" Renji looked confused, the little guy had a Bankai? He was only a 4th seat. Well, who knew?

"Of course." Near said as if this made the most perfect sense in the world. "All shinigami should at least try to reach Bankai level. It is very useful." He closed his eyes, drawing the Egyptian sickle sword that was his zanpakuto. "Billow, Tosuhana.(5)"

This was unusual, his sword extended into a two ended sickle, and then fanned out as if creating a pair of birds wings.

"Bankai." The wings disappeared, and from them a huge, phantomlike bird, very phoenix like only transparent like a ghost and with a long beak, not a hooked one, landed. It let out a soft creel, gentle and beautiful, almost like a flute calling or a silver bell.

"Sugoooooi!" Matsumoto squealed. "Nearu-chan, she's beautiful! Haineko's jealous even!"

"Tosuhana, pick up Misa and carry us to Urahara shoten please." The silver colored bird keened, ducking down onto her belly. She /glared/ at Light, but recognizing L allowed Light to carry him aboard. Near vaulted to the phoenix's neck nimbly for someone of his small stature. Tosuhana took the ball that Misa's released form had become in her talons.

"Yagami-teme." Mello asked. "What's with your friend falling asleep like that?"

"Misa was never so somnolent when we dealt with her." Near agreed. "Nor did she refer to herself in the third person."

"When Misa is wounded, her instincts kick in. She slowly falls into hibernation. She doesn't even know she's doing it. Its like a waking dream until she finally /does/ fall asleep. That's why she speaks in the third person." Light explained. "Her technique, Esqueleto Dragón Hybernation causes her to release her zanpakuto and fall asleep. Then she's wrapped up in a ball of armor that nothing can penetrate. Nothing can wake her up until her wounds have healed, but if she has a target in mind when she falls asleep she can watch them from any distance, /even/ if their on a different plane."

**Misa Misa see Aizen-sama.** A voice floated up into their heads like leaves drifting from a spring.

"See?" Light growled. "That means that Aizen's found out we're gone." Tosuhana lifted off and began to circle upwards.

Tosuhana's wings were massive enough, the zanpakuto took time to get to level altitude. Her flight was more like a glider than a conventional aircraft, though she could be very agile when Near wanted her to be. And she looked every bit the phoenix that she was in Near's mind. His inner world was a room, filled with his favorite toys, with an enormous empty canyon lit with golden sunlight right outside. It was in this realm that Tosuhana glided, a silver hued phoenix so pale she was almost a ghost.

A phantasm that symbolized his anguish, but also his hope.

Tosuhana circled and glided on the wind and suddenly. FWOOSH FWOOSH FWOOSH! The phoenix's wings beat hard, speeding her flight towards the Shoten at the far end of town.

"Then you aren't supposed to be here."

"Sort of, Aizen…. Aizen was responsible for myself and Misa becoming hollows, he fed us to them, his hollows crushed Ryuk and two other shinigami and ate us." Light explained. "But the Hogyoku was the only way we could return to a form that even resembled human. So when Ichigo and his friends, and the captains that came in to save them, killed three of the Espada, Misa and I put ourselves forward to go into cocoons and become their replacements.

"But Aizen recognized us when we came out. when he made us Espada anyway we thought something was wrong. When I dug around, it turns out he was going to have us killed and replaced by more powerful Arrancar. After the Exequias cornered us, I opened the gargantua for us to get out." Light sighed. "I was going to try and trade intelligence to the seireitei for shelter." He chewed on his lip.

L stirred in his arms, snuggling deeper into them. Light's face both softened and saddened.

"The defection of two Espada, interesting." Mello's eyes seemed to glow eagerly.

"Mello?"

"Its Mihael, go on."

"You're not going to ambush either of them." Near told him.

"aaaaaw……" Mello whined.

"Mi….." Light blinked, confused and clearly not comprehending. Near was likely the only one that noticed wounds that had since stopped bleeding, but were likely to reopen. Adrenaline was probably the only thing keeping him moving right now.

"Since he entered the Seireitei, Eleventh Division Fourth Seat Mihael Keele has refused to answer to his former alias of Mello, asserting that since he is already dead, there is nothing to fear from a Nikkisashi's power." Near explained.

Mello was currently knawing on chocolate like a squirrel would a nut, and it actually looked cute. Ichigo giggled at him.

"What?" Mello demanded.

"You look like a squirrel."

"When I bash you upside the fucking head, will you still think I eat like a squirrel?" Mello asked sweetly.

"Um……….." Ichigo sweatdropped.

"Mi-kun, please, don't start hitting people." Ikkaku said crossly. "You're scary even by Eleventh division standards."

"Fanks." Mello said with a mouth full of chocolate.

L pushed himself closer to Light, a quiet whimper in his sleep.

"I have /never/ seen Ryuuzaki fall apart like that." Mello grumbled.

"Here, we're almost there." Tosuhana creeled softly, giving warning to those within Urahara Shoten before landing in the courtyard, setting Misa down, and slowly dissolving. As everyone landed lightly on their feet, Light still carrying L in his arms, Near strode purposefully into the main area of the shop.

"Urahara-donooooo!" He called out.

"Oye! Getaboshi-kun!" Mello hollered.

Urahara stepped out of his shop to find a crowd in his courtyard. "Oh my, are, are, Kawa-kun you never do anything half way." (6)

"Yes, well, Raito-san didn't do his escape halfway either."

Most of Light's wounds had stopped bleeding by the time Ichigo and company had arrived. But suddenly he became aware of just how much they hurt. Add in the bruises that L had left on his wrists, not to mention the cuts on his arms from trying to block Seijitama.

"Yeah, and Ryuuzaki-kun is conked out like a light."

"In the arms of his Killer, my my, Kira-kun, you certainly have a way with men if the lover you killed is still willing to fall into your arms." Urahara mocked.

"If I had my hands free I'd punch you right now. Its Raito, Raito Yagami." Light insisted.

"Are, are come in. And what have we here?" Urahara asked as he peered at Misa, still curled up in a ball.

A bright golden eye swiveled into view, focusing on Urahara. **Misa misa is hibernating, Klararyuhueso is dreaming. Flying on Rem wings, seeing all. (7)**

"She's dreaming, but she can see you while she's asleep." Light explained. "When Misa hibernates, her zanpakuto heals her wounds. She'll be back to normal in a couple of days." His arms hurt, they couldn't carry L's weight. His legs hurt. His head hurt. His back hurt. Pain came spiralling back to him now that battle and escape were no longer necessary.

Suddenly Light staggered, L's weight was all of a sudden too much for him to support. Light gulped, and now that the danger was past, he no longer needed to support his limbs. The adrenaline from his escape from the Exequias, the shock at seeing L again as a shinigami, that Near and Mello both had taken up a zanpakuto and shohaksho as well. That Near had even reached Bankai, everything, everything was spinning as his strength left him.

Raito Yagami fainted.

* * *

1. YES!! Near uses Chappy!! I thought this would just be adorable.

2. Seijitama, Sage Gem, or Sage's Gem.

3. Insert the song, "I do" by Yoko Kanno, from the Ghost in the Shell soundtrack

4. Translation: Dream, white dragon bone. Skeletal dragon hibernation.

5. Thoth Feather, Tosuhana. Billow refers to the sails of the sunboat of the Egyptian God Ra. Tosuhana is a phantom phoenix, though her neck is long and her beak shaped like an ibis' (Thoth has an ibis' head.)

6. Kawa means River, in calling Near "Kawa-kun" Urahara is referring directly to Near's sirname, Rivers.

7. Misa's abilities as an arrancar are nearly all sleep related. Rem gave her life to her when she killed L, Rem's love for Misa touched something deep and primal that could not be erased. Sometimes when Misa is in hibernation, she refers to her 'Dream Eye' ability as 'Rem Wings.' Which she does not do when alert. Though the name Rem could refer to Rem sleep, it is also a unit of measuring nuclear radiation, so despite her powers being mostly defensive, I made Misa's few offensive techniques devastating in power.


	3. Unresolved

Return

Okay, I'm going to make clear right now.

All the characters from Deathnote that appear in here are either shinigami, arrancar, vaizard or reincarnated human.

The detectives from the Task Force are all reincarnated humans. Only /one/ of them will be able to see Hollows, Shinigami, Ghosts ecetera. Whichever one I choose is /probably/ the predictable choice. But none of the others will have any form of spiritual power.

I also realized, I forgot poor Mogi. He'll appear later. They're all classmates of Karin. Since I like her so much they'll all show up probably.

But now, something I seriously anticipated happening and the reason why the rating is about to shoot /way/ up. Angst, trauma, and L and Light playing grabbity.

And for the record, I was listening to "Be My Bad Boy" by Cascada while writing this, "Poison" by Groove Coverage "Moonlight Shadow" by Groove Coverage, all three of these seriously set the tone for the chapter.

And somebody I forgot in the first chapter shows up at the end.

**Unresolved**

Light's head hurt. That was the first thing that he realized. It was dark, the moonlight was shining in a window, along with street lights. Something was curled up next to him, resting its head on his shoulder. The sensation was familiar.

Suddenly it came back to him. The Exequias, escape, the shinigami……

…… L.

And that's whose head was resting on his shoulder right then. Just the way they had while they were alive. When they were in love.

And when Kira slept, locked away in a corner of his mind where he should have stayed.

Damn.

Wait, L never slept. That much almost two centuries of that nightmarish hollow instinct couldn't erase.

"Raito-kun." Sure enough, L had just been lying very still.

"Hmm? Ryuuzaki-kun……" Light's expression was soft, as serene as he'd ever felt in over 200 years of life.

It was a sign that L still hadn't gotten over the circumstances of his death that he didn't automatically correct Light with his real name. Perhaps Mello was brash enough to revert to his birthname. But L had become people shy for a long time, guarded, clammed up. Sometimes he was just numb.

Most shinigami didn't remember the circumstances of their life or death. L did. And the lover he lost had hurt him so bad.

Knowing something consciously is one thing. L knew that Light wasn't going to hurt him the way things stood. He /wanted/ to be with Light again. He /needed/ some kind of physical comfort. Two hundred years is a /long/ time to go without sex.

Knowing something subconsciously is another. Some part of L was still the young man who'd trusted too much and been betrayed by a lover that he'd given /everything/ to.

And Light, he was so relieved to have L back. Every part of him yearned for the detective, every fiber of his being.

L couldn't hold back, he had to try. He yanked Light in for a kiss, desperate, long, still tasting of sweets.

The two suddenly became a blur of arms and legs and lips. Soon they were as hot and aroused as they had been so many years ago. L just about writhed out of his kimono, Light was already topless from his wounds being treated, bandages wrapped around his torso.

His hole was left open, and L curiously traced a finger around it. Light groaned, shivering in pleasure. L slowly dipped a finger around the edge. A blush rose in Light's cheeks, breath hitching. "Its sensitive…." He murmured in explanation.

"mmm…." L's mouth was traveling up Light's neck, jawline, nibbling on an earlobe.

Light moaned, jerking his hips upwards. L ground against the other, hissing in pleasure at the sensation. Gasping Light pulled L into another kiss, a hand grabbing at his butt, L's hand on Light's crotch grabbing at his erection.

Then Light probably did the worst thing he could have in that situation. He flipped them over, straddling L's hips and reaching to undo his Hakama.

_Pain._

L froze, the memory flashing to his mind, unbid.

_Everything stopped. There was pain._

"Light wait….."

Light blinked in surprise, "what…… what did I…."

L's face blanched, cloudy eyes vacant. "Get off….."

"But we just……"

Light looked down at his long missing lover, confused. Then L began to thrash, screaming.

Light screeched in shock.

_Pain._

_Everything stopped._

_There was a flash of light. L could remember the flash of light._

_Everything stopped._

_**This is what its like to be dead.**_

He didn't even realize he was screaming. All he remembered was a time 200 years ago, a monster named Kira, and the lover who had him killed.

Not the Light that was with him now. The one that wanted him back more than anything.

Urahara was there in a heartbeat, so was Isane, who'd been called to tend to Light. "L, L snap out of it!"

It probably wasn't the best thing to do, but she had no cold water. Isane smacked L on the cheek, hard.

L froze, suddenly back in the present.

"What happened??" Urahara demanded.

"We were making out, we were gonna, and then he told me to get off, and then he started screaming." Light had gone pale. "What did I do?"

"Two hundred years ago you had him killed." Urahara said quietly. Urahara almost /never/ used that tone. But he considered L /his/ pupil, /his/ find, /his/ friend.

Light closed his eyes in pain, realizing what had happened. "Damn not this."

"Its your fault." Urahara pointed out.

"I've regretted that every day of my life and afterlife. I loved him. But by the time I went into confinement the trap was already in motion." Light growled. "There was no way I could have stopped it."

"Someone doesn't seem to think so." L was curled in a fetal position, eyes squeezed shut, shaking.

"R…. Raito-kun….. I'm sorry….. it all just, came back. I couldn't make it stop." He said quietly. "I wanted you…. So bad…. But my mind…. I couldn't…."

"Raito, what did you /think/ was going to happen? Did you really, really, think that all of this would just be water under the bridge? That he'd be alright and you could just pick up where everything left off?" Urahara asked.

"I'm an idiot." Light moved to get his clothes back on and leave.

"Raito, wait…." L said quietly.

Light looked at L, and the detective saw the pain on his face. "Do you /really/ want your killer sleeping in the same bed?" Light demanded bitterly.

L glared at Urahara, then he grabbed Light by the arm and pulled him bodily back onto the Tatami. And his voice held the quiet steel that had comforted Light when they had shared a bed before, the quiet fervor that had comforted Light, the scared child, not Light the Kira.

"I /want/ you. I have wanted you back for over two centuries. I wanted it to be just the two of us, no Kira, no case, no life and death game of mafia where you can't trust your best friend or your own eyes. I want /you./" L emphasized, eyes begging Light to stay.

Two hundred years, even if love doesn't change, people do. L used to be happy, and now all he knew in his dreams was sadness.

Light found himself hauled down next to L, and the other curling himself into Light's body. The scale cloak jingled softly as he came to a stop. The armored veil that was attached to Light, that caused him a lot of annoyance when he first came out of the cocoon, fell around them. Light enfolded L in his arms, and cried. L cried with him.

"I love you."

"I know, Raito-kun, Raito, I don't want to be afraid of you. I didn't mean what happened to……"

"Ryuuzaki, its /my/ fault. I guess, the trauma of what happened just didn't fade." Light said quietly.

The two of them looked at each other for a moment. Both understood what had happened.

The conscious mind forgives.

The subconscious never forgets.

* * *

Far away, in the warehouse district, a figure sat on the roof of the Vaizard hideout. "Iiii'm bored!!" The boy groaned. "Please tell me the damn thing still has juice."

He dug into a book bag next to him and pulled out a small, flat object the size of a dime store novel. The boy flicked it open, and the backlit screen pinged what someone who'd lived 200 years prior would know as a Nintendo DS start up sequence.

"Seeegaaa…." The portable system chimed.

"Alright Sonic, pour on the juice."

Sonic wasn't feeling juicy. Or maybe it just wasn't the DS's night. The light blinked red after ten minutes, and in another twenty the screen went out. "DAMNIT ALL!" The system was shoved back into the backpack. "Maybe the PSP."

The poor PSP also didn't seem to have shine to it. Spyro fought valiantly across the screen that he had soared across for two hundred years.

But in the year 2008 or the year 2208, running out of batteries means, running out of batteries. If the vaizard on the roof wanted to play video games again that night, he'd have to leave his watch post and go down and plug them into the warehouse power supply.

Which meant Hiyori would take off her sandal and start hitting him.

Being hit by Hiyori hurt.

"MELLOOOOOO!" The boy on watch howled in loneliness. "WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUUU!!"

There were times when Matt was convinced that being a Vaizard sucked.

This was one of them.

"Mello, where the hell did you get to?"

* * *

That last part was something I couldn't resist doing. Something /really/ funny that showed what happened to Matt. Something that would be his worst nightmare.

Like all his favorite video games running out of power. Somehow I don't think any of his old favorites survived.

And backwards compatibility will only get you so far.

L, umm... L is going through a combination PTSD and the sort of reaction that only comes with abuse. He /wants/ to be with Light, but his body and subconscious mind have other ideas.

After all, even after 200 years, would /you/ want to sleep with your killer?


	4. UndoShuffle

Undo

Undo/Shuffle

Notes: When you see who reappears in this chapter, you'll understand why I name it Undo. But this chapter has two names because I couldn't decide which one to give it. Really I couldn't!

OMIGOD OMIGOD OMIGOD!!

199738(dot)spreadshirt(dot)com/us/US/Shop/Index/index

The site is called "Penguin Soda Productions." They have /four/ Deathnote inspired items for sale.

T-shirts, what they say…..

1. Hi, my name is Kira.

2. Shinigami aren't half bad

3. Shinigami bait (it has an /apple/ on it! Hyuk!)

And they have panties, black panties, with a pink cursive L on them. Misa was right! He is a pervert!!

OMIGOD. Then there are the Deatheater t-shirts, the blue Hermione shirt that says 'Swish and Flick', they have Indiana Jones, dragonriders of Pern for your inner rider/inner candidate and lots of penguins and monkeys.

And then there's the 801 line of fine clothing products. 801 is a very discrete way of saying 'Yaoi.' Proclaim your proclivities with these lovely, lovely t-shirts, messenger bags, and baseball caps.

* * *

It was a common gathering now adays in the throne room of Las Noches. Aizen addressed the group of Arrancar, "The defection of Yagami Raito and Amane Misa was unfortunate. And it once again leaves us with three open Espada positions. Ophiucus Zephly (1) has temporarily taken over Szayel's care and position while his machine scrubs Kurotsuchi-taichou's poison from his system. In the interim, he has identified two promising cocoons that will make absolutely wonderful Espada. Then now, we will bring them into the moonlight."

His hand reached into the case that contained the Hogyoku. Zephly was standing by with a medkit, uniforms and blankets for the two. Most of the time an arrancar came out clothed, but not always. Zephly was often asked to stand by as a medical witness, the soft spoken arrancar was near on par with his mate, Szayel in strength, but had mostly defensive and healing related powers. Aizen had repeatedly offered him promotions, but Zephly had insisted that as a medic, he did the most good for the sake of his Lord. After that, Aizen had left the offer open but did not force the issue.

The power gently moved into Aizen's limbs, Zephly had simply told him these two would be useful, when asked why, Zephly simply said. "You'll see."

Aizen simply moved to the two cocoons, tapping each gently with the Hogyoku as per their usual.

The cocoons gently melted away, peeling back and dissolving the way the tides on the shore wash away footprints.

The first was male, his mask crowned like an eagle, reaching between his eyes, over the third eye. Three sweptback extensions formed a bony crest in mimicry of an eagle's feathers. One on either side of his head, one right behind, covering the crown chakra, another good sign. And eagles were creatures of force, brutality. (2)

His hair was shoulder length, navy and spikey. An attachment from either side of his eagle like mask formed glasses, through which sharp gold eyes with the barest hint of red, but currently closed. His hole was along his collar bone. For a zanpakuto he had a Roman Infantry Sword and a small Warhammer. (3)

He'd come out, kneeling before Aizen as one might before a king, still sleeping. His mouth was moving as if speaking in a dream. Aizen listened, carefully. It was faint. "Delete them, all of them, delete them."

The other one, was a woman. Her hair was short, conservatively cut, well groomed a shimmering mixture of gold, silver and copper, elegant. Head bowed where she knelt as if in sleep. Her mask was a mixture of crown and Grecian hoplite helmet. The forepiece twisted like a crown of flowering vines, forming an interlocking diadem curl. The back of the crown left her cheeks, jaw, most of her head bare. There was a long bony crest, very small, running from side to side of the helmet/crown. Across her neck and collar bone a second mask piece formed a neckpiece, very much like an Egyptian queen. Her eyes were completely black, except for a tiny ring of gold around the pupil. (4)

Her right arm had a series of featherlike structures attached at the wrist but they looked as if they could be extended and fanned out. A shield maybe? Her zanpakuto was a long, torso length blade with the hilt elegantly decorated to resemble, well, it actually reminded Aizen of the Excalibur from Human myth, the blade of royalty. (5)

"Awaken, your names, both of you. My seventh and fifth Espada, who are you?" All Arrancar come from their cocoons knowing their names.

The man's eyes suddenly fluttered open, and he spoke quietly "Mikami Teru."

And the woman replied, an eye swiveling suspiciously upwards to look at Aizen, the eye of a women who knew her force, her strength, and her elegance. "Takada Kiyome." The woman said with an almost steel calm.

"Aaaaah, Ophiucus, I'm surprised that you were able to pick them out."

"I told you they'd be interesting." Ophiucus moved in with blankets.

The man blushed, the woman scowled, both new Espada had come out stark naked.

"Now what am I doing here?" Mikami asked curiously.

"I'd like you to take care of someone for me."

"Who?"

"Raito Yagami." Aizen's face was quite pleasant. The tattoo 7 was located on the right side of Mikami's chest. Where a prosecutor hangs his ID card. Aizen thought. And Takada's tattoo was. Oh dear. Her hole was located in her abdomen, and the tattoo five was on her rear end. These two are going to be a handful. (6)

"Welcome to Los Noches." Ophiucus told them courteously.

* * *

Yaaaaaaaaaaawn! Mello was exhausted.

But the /midget/ next door seemed to be getting some /really/ good action. "nnnng….. To…. Toushiro-kun….." Oh yes, Near was rather /vocal/ for such a little midget wonder.

Mello was getting randier and randier. Damnit, where the hell has Matt been the past 200 years. I could use a fuck.

Mello + no sexual relief + Near getting banged by Snowy-taichou next door was a recipe for violence, loudness, rudeness, and general destructive carrying on. (7)

"harder……" was growled out. "mmmm yes, yes, yes….. right there…. Oh oh ooooooooooooh!"

Mello covered his ears as Near's wail of orgasm faded away and was very sure that Near was finished for the night. Silence.

Blessed silence.

"Hmmmm done for the night love?"

"No. Do that again."

There was a groan from the pair of snowy haired chibis and they went at it again.

Mello was finally, finally fed up. **WHAM WHAM WHAM!!** "Near if you and Hitsugaya-taichou don't shut up right now I'm going to castrate you both!! SHUT UP BEFORE I CHOP YOUR BALLS OFF!"

Mello was certain there was a sex god out there laughing at him, because Near was quiet for a total of two minutes before they went back to their business. "If he tries to castrate me he's getting blue balls." Hitsugaya growled. "Because I'll freeze his!"

"Don't get angry koi, just get at it. That spot right there feels nice."

Mello's face was twitching. "I'm so glad I don't have to sleep next door to him /every/ night. Damn nympho chibi midget."

* * *

Kon and his fellow Modsouls tended to sneak out at night lately. "Oooooh." Ririn spotted the toystore sign. "Lookit! Kon do you think we can get boss to buy us some new plushies to use as bodies?"

"Why, what do you have your eyes on?" Kon, Cloud and Nova scurried over.

"There's a panther, seeeee?" Ririn squealed.

Nova jumped onto Kon's shoulders and blushed.

"Wooow, look at that Wolf!" Kon grinned. "Nova, you should take the wolf body!"

"No, I should, the wolf is more handsome." Cloud insisted. "Far more dignified."

"Well I want that black Labrador next to the wolf! Women love Labradors!" Kon grinned.

"You /would/ pi……." Ririn paused.

"What is it?" Kon asked.

"I heard something." Ririn insisted.

"Oniisan, please! I'll hold it for you! Don't struggle!"

"Mirai, its my Deathnote, I should be able to handle it on my own."

"Ryuuuk-niichan! Please don't hurt yourself again!"

"Hyuk, Mirai the only thing that's been hurt for two centuries is my pride."

"Says the one armed shinigami!"

The Modsouls rushed to the scene, peeking around the corner.

"It's a Nikkisashi!" Kon shuddered.

"Yes, I know!" Ririn's tiny eyes went wide. "Hush!"

The two Nikkisashi were hiding in the shadow of the statue in the nearby square. One had wild hair, feathery black wings, but here was the odd part.

He was missing an arm. It was very, very rare to see a one armed Nikkisashi, if they couldn't use their deathnotes they died.

It should also be noted that while humans /cannot/ see a nikkisashi without touching their deathnote, Seishoken, Arrancar, Bounto and Vaizard were under no such restraint, neither were Modsouls.

"Another criminal nii-chan?"

"Yeah, I'm no Kira, but the kid had a point. And they're not doing anything with their years anyway, just rotting away in jail." The older, huskier of the two shinigami replied. "Damn, its getting harder and harder to hold the book."

"Let me hold it /for/ you nii-chan."

"It's a matter of pride Mirai. I was shinigami for a true death god. I will handle my power with the hand that remains. I /refuse/ to have help with my kills."

"Maybe one of the Seishoken can make a….."

"No. I'm not trusting a seishoken again, not after what Aizen did to Light. He may not even be around anymore, even as a hollow."

"So what are you going to do?"

"I hear some humans have hooks for hands, maybe I can use some of the debris in the shinigami realm to make a hook." (8)

There was a boom, boom, boom.

"What's that?" Kon started to shiver.

"A hollow!" Ririn squeaked.

"Whatddo we do? We're not /big/ enough!"

"You hear that?"

"Yes, a hollow."

"nnniiii-chaan." Mirai started to shiver.

"Well, this is a surprise, a pair of Nikkisashi out for a night's stroll." Snickered the leader of the trio of hollows that suddenly cornered the pair.

"The walls are too high for them to escape easily." Ririn shivered. "What do we do?"

Nova thought for a moment. Then …… zooop. He disappeared.

POP! Nova landed on Ryuk's head. ZOOOP! They disappeared with Ryuk cussing the whole way.

POP! Nova landed on Mirai next. ZOOOP! He disappeared with Mirai this time.

Ririn looked up, he'd brought the two shinigami to the roof, where they not only had the advantage of height, they could fly away if they were in danger.

"Orihime!!" Ishida had appeared on night patrol with Orihime.

"I'm here Ishida! I'll help you!" Orihime growled. "**Koten Zanshun I reject!" **

Tsubaki shot forwards. "Here we go!" SWOOSH! There went the lead hollow's arm.

"rrrrrg. Human gaki. You're going to pay for this." The Hollow raised his hand to slam down on Orihime's body.

Mirai and Ryuk looked at each other. "Oniichan, I won't get in trouble if I just use my wings right? Its just if I use my Deathnote?"

"Yes, Mirai what are you going to do?"

"BONZAAAAAAAAAAAI!" Mirai swooped down.

"ORIHIME LOOK OUT!" Ishida bellowed.

"oooh, oooh, they need our help!" Ririn squeaked.

Nova tensed, ready to drop in and carry Orihime out of there, but……

Mirai was faster, her huge dragonlike sails had gotten much stronger in two hundred years. She swept right under the slam, grabbing Orihime out of the way. "Oh dear!" Her Deathnote fell from her hip. "I gotta….. grab it!!"

Orihime was thrown free but Mirai clasped one, three, four fingers on the notebook. WHAM!!

Mirai and the Deathnote went flying. "Oh dear!"

"I got it I got it!" Ryuk swept in trying to catch it. But he missed.

Thunk! . !! The corner of it hit Orihime upside the head. Then Mirai and Orihime went tumbling end over end and landed in a heap. Mirai's left wing hung limp, and she was squealing in pain.

Ishida didn't know what was going on, but TEW TEW TEWTEWTEW!! Ginrei Kujaku hit her mark. The lead hollow dissolved in a spray of dust.

THWACK! The second hollow, resembling a mixture of an ogre and a gorilla made to sideswipe Uryu.

"Okay if you're going to be an idiot Mirai I will too." Ryuk let out an eager Hyuuk and down he went.

Ishida found himself thrown bodily backwards.

"Stupid Quincy gonna getcherself killed Hyuk!" Ryuk growled. "Mirai!"

"Niichan I can't fly! My head hurts lotses." .

Orihime was a similar mess.

"Who the hell are you?" Uryu demanded.

"Long story." Ryuk hyuked thoughtfully as he regarded the hollows. "Boy, if I carry you into the air, can you get them from there?"

"I /never/ miss." Uryu replied.

"You better not, Hyuk!" Ryuk growled. "Climb on!"

Uryu wasn't sure what the hell this creature was, but if it was offering him help and a free ride, then fine. He was careful to hang on tight, gripping the creature's waist with his knees. He drew back his bow and………..

TEEEW TEEEW TEEEW! There went all three Hollows.

Ryuk overshot the mark thanks to being minus an arm, and tumbled end over end with Ishida, hyuking happily with laughter all the way. "THAT WAS FUN!" He declared from the heap of human and shinigami on the ground.

"Niiiichaaaan." Mirai whimpered.

"Mirai!!" Ryuk took stock of the situation. Then he plucked Mirai's deathnote from where it had splayed open on Orihime's head and planted it firmly in his sister's hand. "Hyuk, Mirai imooto you're such a klutz."

"Speak for yourself Niichan." Mirai staggered, winglimp.

"Do yourself a favor and knock this guy on the head with your deathnote so that he can /see/ you? I'll do the same with the girl."

"Haiii niichan. It doesn't…. do they?"

"Course not, it just clocked her on the head hyuk. She'll come round with a monster headache but no shinigami powers into the bargain, thank gods."

"WHACK!" Mirai limped over and knocked Ishida on the head. "Kombanwa Kawai-kun!" Mirai squealed.

Ryuk was far gentler. Tap. "Git up girl, hyuk, I thought my imooto was a klutz. But you sure take the cake!"

Six points of light started buzzing around them. "Oh dear."

"Orihime-chan!"

"Get up girl!"

Ryuk cocked his head. The girl is a saint, Orihime hmm? The heavenly weaver. (9) I sense no malevolence from her. Hmmm….. her years are long. She must be a gentle soul. But then……. He was too. All humans are the same. Ryuk glared. "Stupid humans, what were yeh doing? Hyuk."

"We were /going/ to defeat those hollows." Uryu growled. "Who are you?"

"Ryuk, and that's my imooto Mirai."

"Well, what were you doing here?" Uryu demanded.

"Out for a midnight stroll."

Orihime came around, rubbing her head. "Who dumped a library on my head? It huuuurts."

"Soooo do I!" Mirai hobbled a little.

Ryuk wanted to cry. Mirai's right leg and wing were about crushed. "Mirai….." He crooned, reaching out to stroke the broken wing. "don't move…. You're hurt."

Orihime looked confused. "Did you…… get that saving me?" Orihime sniffled.

"mmmhmmm……. It hurts….." Mirai wobbled whining.

Nova, Ririn, Cloud and Kon were waiting in the shadows. "No way, Orihime's gonna save that monster!?" Kon nearly shrieked in terror.

"Doesn't she know what she's looking at?" Cloud demanded, outraged.

"Please, please tell me that ditzhead girl shinigami's powers didn't transfer." Kon flailed.

"Orihime didn't pick up her deathnote. It conked her on the head." Ririn pointed out stubbornly.

"Nova, please get ready to haul her /out/ of there!" Kon begged, panicking.

"If it wanted her, there would be no running. And they both would be dead." Nova said simply.

Orihime knelt next to Mirai. "Sit down and hold still."

"na…. nan da?" Mirai blinked in confusion.

"**Sōten Kisshun**" Orihime said quietly. "I reject!"

Mirai giggled, enveloped in a golden dome of light. "That tickles!" Mirai sounded absolutely bubbly.

"Sugooooi! Huk." Ryuk cocked his head.

Mirai squealed in glee as she was healed, waving around her wings and tail. "I'm better! I'm better see! See?"

Orihime walked over to Ryuk. "You next." She said quietly.

"Hmmm?" Ryuk blinked in surprise.

"Your arm…." Orihime indicated.

"oh." Ryuk shuffled to the side so that Orihime could get at the stump.

Years and years and years ago, Aizen decided to make Ryuk's life hell. He had the hollow that ate Light rip Ryuk's arm off. "Heh, you get to die a long and painful death of old age, lucky you." He'd said nastily.

Ryuk had been barely able to use his Deathnote. He'd had to hold it still on a leg or knee to use it. Sometimes it fell off whatever surface he braced it on. Sometimes his leg shook trying to balance it. It was humiliating, discouraging, and for the other shinigami, pitiful to watch. Ryuk hadn't been able to look some of his fellow shinigami in the eye. He'd gotten mopey, preferring to sit alone watching the human world.

"Ih didn't get that arm removed in theh fight miss." Ryuk said in a low voice. "Ah bastard by thuh name o' Aizen did it hyuk!"

Orihime froze. "Aizen, took your arm?"

"aye, he decided teh make my life hell in the process."

"Aizen once made me his prisoner." Orihime said with a kind smile up at Ryuk. "This one is on me."

"I dun think yeh can restore a whole……"

"Don't worry." Orihime's smile broadened. "Here…." She started to heal the arm. Ryuk's eyes turned round as his arm suddenly reappeared.

"Well don't that beat all?" Ryuk's eyes widened. "Thankya miss, I think ye dun saved my life there. Arigatou." (10)

"You're welcome." Orihime bowed politely.

"Orihime, I think we'd better go." Ishida said, eyeing Ryuk suspiciously. Something about these two didn't sit right.

"Huh? Uryu but….."

"Orihime." Uryu warned.

"Alright."

"Nah need, we was just going. Mirai?"

Mirai was hopping from foot to foot, "Hai oniiiiichaaan!" The two of them winged off. But Mirai had left something behind.

"Sugoooi! Ishida she dropped this!" Orihime pointed.

"Don't touch!" Ishida slapped Orihime's hand away.

"What? Why?" Orihime asked.

"That creature dropped it." Ishida dug into his bag for a cloth. He used it to gingerly pick up the dropped notebook. "We're taking this to Urahara. I don't like the look of it."

"URYUUUUUU!!" Ririn wailed. "Uryu! We were so scared! Those things could have killed youuu aaaaah!"

"Huh?" Ishida blinked.

"Put that thing down! Put it down!!" Ririn flailed.

Ishida dropped the deathnote Mirai had left behind.

"Too late." Cloud winced. "Ishida! You shouldn't have touched that!"

"Ummm?" Ishida stared down at the dropped Deathnote.

"It's a Deathnote! Its bad! Don't take it!" Kon, Cloud and Nova jumped on Ishida and started wailing.

"Alright alright eeech." Uryu fell on his rear end.

"Too late stoopid head, he already picked it up." Ririn groaned.

"Both of you hang on to Nova." Cloud told the two of them, "And, take that with you. We're going to leave it at Urahara's for the shinigami who dropped it!"

"That wasn't a shinigami." Uryu protested.

"It was, just not a kind you've seen!" Ririn squealed as Ishida picked up the dropped Deathnote again, still holding it by the cloth. "Member! Don't write anything in it!"

Ishida clearly had no idea what had the modsouls in a tizzy. But Cloud and Ririn hopped on his shoulders and Kon clung to Orihime's back, then Nova grabbed onto an arm each.

ZWOOOO POP!

Ririn shrieked off into the store. "Five alarm, five alarm!!" Ririn wailed. "Dere's was Nikkisashi! Ones of dems left dere Deathnote behind. Five alarm coming trwou!"

Ririn's shriek woke Light out of a groggy sleep. He heard shrieking, the words "Five Alarm" and "Deathnote." "What or who the hell?" Light blinked sleepily.

"Whaaa?" Mello heard Ririn with the pillow over his head.

"Dere's was a Nikkisashi! Ones of dem dropped dere Deathnote! Boss! Boss! Boss!"

A flying tackle from a wailing panicking Ririn hit a still sleepy Urahara in the chest. "Damn, Ririn whaaaaa yawn got you at this hour?"

"Lookit lookit lookit!"

Poor Uryu was staggering under the wailing and flailing of three plushies and trying to keep a good grip on the Deathnote that Mirai had abandoned. "Guys, guys you're going to knock me over!" Uryu wailed.

"He founded it! He founded it!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Yoruichi's eyes looked like they were welded shut with sleep.

Kon, Ririn, Cloud and Nova fell to a heap at Uryu's feet.

Uryu found several pairs of eyes on him. A bandaged Light who's face had just blanched, a Near who'd just been shouted out of nookie. (His pajamas were for some reason /very/ baggy.) Hitsugaya rubbing at his eyes and forcedly holding his yukata shut. Mello looked ready to fall over from lack of sleep. Yoruichi had changed into a cat, in the meantime, to cover her nudity. L had taken up his usual crouched position at the side wall near Light.

Light took one look at what Uryu was holding. He walked to the nearest wall and started banging his head against it.

"Raaaaiittoooo!" Ririn jumped onto Light's shoulders. "Raaaaaitoooo! Tell him not to use that thing! Tell him not toooo!"

"What did we end up finding anyway?" Orihime asked. "Who were those two creatures the hollow was attacking?"

"Calm down." Yoruichi calmly tugged on Light's pants leg. "Sit down, shut up."

"Mello, make tea." Urahara told the scarred shinigami. "Ishida, put the notebook down on the floor and leave it there."

"If it will get the damn plushies to shut up." Uryu growled. Throwing the Deathnote Mirai had left behind down on the ground.

"Now." Yoruichi told the two teens, walking out and coming back in a yukata and sitting down near Orihime. "Tell me what happened this evening."

Uryu launched into an account, with Orihime's help, of what happened. "The female whatever it was was jumping around testing her leg after Orihime healed her. She must not have realized that she dropped it. And the both of them gave me the creeps."

Yoruichi's face had never been so grave. She instead explained gravely to Ishida what Mirai had left behind. Uryu was shaking by the end of it. "Then she can take it back! I don't want something that…. That… vile!"

"its not that easy." Light said cooly. He'd since stopped hitting his head on the wall, leaving a mask shaped impression in the wood. "You can't get rid of it, because if another human picks it up and decides to /use/ it, then the shinigami it belongs to is forced to give her power to that human until that human gives it back. She needs the notebook to live, so destroying it is out of the question. You have to hang onto it until she comes back to get it. Did you get their names?"

"Anooo……" Orihime struggled to remember. "Anoooo……. Um…… well one of them had big sweeping black wings like this! All feathery like a bird! And he had big round eyes that were gold and red and a giant jagged mouth and huuuuuge arms and legs and he had jewelry /everywhere!/" She said excitedly, hopping around and making gestures to illustrate her points. "And the girl had a tail like a blue dinosaur and big dragon wings and looked kinda just like the first otherwise only covered in scales like gemstones!" She paused. "Anoooo….. anooo….."

"Bright isn't she?" Mello whispered sardonically to Near.

"Shush."

"I should tell you that." He growled. "Way to keep a man up."

"In more ways than one." Near snarled under his breath.

"I know! The feathery one's name was Ryuk!" Orihime exclaimed brightly.

* * *

1. Yep! Poor Zephly from Heartsbond is back! I just changed his sirname. Ophiucus is known as the unlucky 13th Zodiac sign. But the story of Ophiucus is completely different. Ophiucus is the Roman name for Ascepilus, Greek god of healing. Ascepilus was given the secret of how to bring the dead back to life. But the gods feared that allowing him to continue using it would upset the balance between the worlds of the living and the dead. In fact, another famous constellation was revived by him before being killed again by the gods, the Hunter Orion. In the end, Zeus/Jupiter was asked by Hades/Pluto to kill Ophiucus. The fact that the constellation Ophiucus is known as the Serpent bearer is also a reference to the caduceus which is a pair of serpents twined around a staff and Ascepilus' sign.

2. In fact, Benjamin Franklin was against the eagle being used as the American National bird on account of it being cruel and vicious in nature. But the eagle is also the bird of Zeus/Jupiter, King of the Gods, and it is a symbol of Justice almost everywhere in the United States. Since Mikami was a prosecutor and worked in the courts, and so adamant on his views of justice I felt that the bird would be a perfect basis for his mask and hollow form.

3. Romans were great patriots, and you could say that Mikami was a soldier of sorts. A roman infantry sword also fits with his mask and hollow form, because the Eagle was Jupiter/Zeus' symbolic animal. Jupiter was both king of the gods and their judge. So, Roman themed blade for Mikami I did. As for the Warhammer, well, judges sort of have a hammer, a gavel, there's my train of thought there. I also wanted to have another character with a double zanpakuto. Obviously Mikami can't use both at once, but I didn't want to make it /exactly/ like either Ukitake's or Kyoraku's blades, because MikamiBad, Ukitakegood, Kyorakugood.

4. Again, with the Greek/Roman themes. The depiction of a Hoplite with the crest going backwards is inaccurate. Roman Soldiers had a backward crest, Hoplite crests went from side to side of their helmets. The crown was due to her being considered Royalty among Kira's worshippers. There are images of a celtic maiden barefoot in the gardens in spring. We /all/ know Takada's not very maiden like at all. So the design is really just deceptive. Her neckpiece is kinda like the ones you see on stereotypical drawings of Egyptian queens, and I was thinking 'Neferti' rather than 'Cleopatra.' The rings in her eyes are just that, rings. Symbols of fidelity, but also symbols of being bound. I gave her a 'shield' protrusion on her arm, again, to enhance the Ancient Soldier/Ancient Royalty look. I /seriously/ debated what to give her for a zanpakuto.

5. Arthurian myth isn't my /favorite/ story, but I remembered that it had its share of villains. While I hate to tread on the Morrigan's good name, I fancied Takada more of a "Morrigan" than a "Gweneviere."

6. I like, normally, to put an Arrancar's hole in the chakra that corresponds with their principle personality or that has some bearing as to how they died. Mikami is a prosecutor, he relied on his voice for his profession the same that Misa did. And his Tattoo is where one would have the breast pocket on the suit. But with Takada I couldn't resist, her tattoo is on her rear end because I'm being a smartass.

7. Two precocious white haired geniuses with ginormous IQ's and monsterous egos. Near and Hitsu were made for each other! XD

8. It was noted that Ryuk was based off of Edward Scissorhands. So a hook hand sounds kind of like something he'd consider.

9. Orihime is the name of the Weaver maiden in the legend behind the Japanese summer festival Tanabata. A river separated her from her lover, who returned to see her only once a year on the bridge of heaven. The constellation Veela is associated with the legend, and the heavenly river dividing Orihime from her lover is the Milky Way. The Bridge of Heaven is also a landmark in Japan.

10. Since a shinigami has to be able to use their deathnote, by biting off Ryuk's arm, Aizen made it harder for Ryuk to use his deathnote, meaning that he couldn't kill as easily, could not get the years he needed to live. By restoring Ryuk's arm, Orihime may have pretty much saved his life.


	5. Resolution

**Resolution**

_"I know! The feathery one's name was Ryuk!" Orihime exclaimed brightly._

Half the room facefaulted, the other half damn near fell over in shock.

"Ryuk is still alive." Light's eyes widened. "I thought he got crushed to death by Aizen's hollows!"

Everybody whirled on Light. "What do you mean Aizen's hollows?"

"Umm, well….. Aizen was supposed to be konsoing the people involved with the case I think, but he was really feeding people to hollows. Misa and I just happened to be in his way." Light grumbled. "That's why Aizen sent the Exequias after us, he thought we were going to turn on him, and while he was /right/ it happened /way/ sooner than I thought it would."

"You sound upset at Ishida-kun's discovery, Yagami-kun." L smirked.

"OF COURSE I'M UPSET!!" Light protested. "I don't want another Kira getting loose!!" Light protested. "Not after everything that happened! The world doesn't need another one!!"

"The question is……" Near pondered. "Ishida-san, you said that it was the female Nikkisashi Shinigami that dropped the book."

"Yeah, and she was nearly as excitable as Kusajishi." Ishida muttered.

"The question is, how fast is she going to realize that her Deathnote is gone?" Near, L and Mello peered over each others shoulders at the book.

"Well, until she shows up looking for it, Uryu, its going to stay locked in the safe I keep dangerous items in." Urahara said calmly. "And please, don't forget its attached to you."

"Why?"

"There is always the off chance, that someone has both a deathnote and the sense of sight of a shinigami. If that is the case, as I told you about shinigami eyes, they will not see your lifespan."

"And they'll know what happened." Uryu Ishida suddenly felt very, very exposed and vulnerable. The fact that he'd been stupid enough to pick up the very notebook he'd warned Orihime not to touch made Uryu feel completely and utterly soiled.

He was a Quincy, his sense of honor moved him to protect the dead and the living from the supernatural, from hollows, bounto, arrancar and anything supernatural that threatened the innocent. No matter the personal sacrifice. It was the burden he had to bear. Just like the shinigami could /not/ say no to protecting the dead, killing hollows, fulfilling the last wishes of the dead for the living.

In this way, this stubborn sense of honor, he supposed, he was not that far away from Kira.

That comparison violated everything that Ishida had been brought up, conditioned to, believe.

"Take it, lock the damn thing up!" Ishida snapped, turning his back to the others and pacing.

"Ishida-kun is afraid." L observed.

"No shit Sherlock." Mello snickered.

Ichigo spoke up, he and Renji and Ishida had their own arrangement, the three of them would sleep with each other as they felt like it, it was both for sexual conveinance and emotional attachment. It was an agreement that very few knew about. Rukia and Orihime had once walked in on them. (Renji had shown up for a date with a footprint on his face soon after.) And Urahara considered himself the unofficial guardian of their little threesome.

Uryu at the very least needed to be soothed. "Uryu, have some tea, then come to bed." Ichigo insisted.

Uryu bristled. "You have to be joking."

"Get some rest. Tomorrow is a holiday, we'll go have some fun, hunt some hollows. Things will be alright." Ichigo put a hand on Uryu's shoulder. "Urahara will keep it locked away, and when Mirai comes to get it, then you can give it back. In the meantime, just keep your head down."

"you sound so stupid that way." Uryu growled. "But fine, I get what you're saying, I need to keep from panicking."

"Yeah." Ichigo winked at the Wammy trio as they watched him go.

"Wait, Ishida-san." Light asked. "Is Ryuk alright? It looked like he was going to be eaten last time I saw him."

Ishida offered the closest thing he could to a reassurance, given his personality and the circumstances. Ryuk was the /last/ person he wanted to think about. "When we found him, he was minus an arm. He could barely hold his Deathnote. His sister Mirai had to hold it for him. Orihime's healing power is strong enough that a person can be inches from death, blown to bits, and she can still return them to health. For her, returning Ryuk's missing arm was child's play. And you were fortunate that it was her, if I had been in Orihime's shoes, I would not have trusted him enough to do that."

"She saved his life then, and his dignity." Light told him simply. "Ryuk probably found that interesting."

Uryu muttered. "At least one of us is interested." And he followed Ichigo and Renji to bed.

"Are you sure Kurosaki-kun can handle him?" Near asked. "He seemed quite hysterical."

"Ichigo knows Uryu better than anyone." Urahara assured them.

"The boy is a quincy." Near observed.

"So?"

"Keep the deathnote locked up." He said simply.

"Hold on a minute, you're not saying that he'd actually use it!" Light protested.

"Raito, more than you did, he would be most likely to use it, however pure he says his honor is. He is a Quincy, they were slaughtered by the shinigami. If there is something living connected to the shinigami? He would have plenty of reason to kill them, if only for revenge." Near said quietly.

"You don't know Uryu Ishida!" Hitsugaya declared. "Ishida-san does have his vengeful side, but his sense of honor only drives him to murder hollows, not the living." He assured Near.

"What about you Light?" Near looked up at him. Light got the distinct impression that he was being sized up.

"Near, bringing the world to its knees only to be killed by the very thing that gave you the power to do it is enough to knock /anyone/ down a peg. Myself included. By the time Aizen had his hollows eat myself and Misa, sanity had broken through the demon." Light stated. "By now? I know better."

"I see."

"Near." L warned. "That's enough. Go back to your bedmate."

Hitsugaya did not like outward shows of affection, but he knew how to handle his mate. GLOMP! Hitsugaya threw his arms around Near, nuzzling the back of his neck. "Come with /me/ koibito!" **God I hate this. Don't make me do this in public again. **Hitsugaya thought. **Its humiliating. **

Near flushed. "Sure." Hitsugaya winked at L and Light as he half smothered, half dragged his mate away.

Light started laughing. "Wow. I didn't think the chibi was even interested in sex?"

"If he were a girl, he and Hitsugaya would have more children than a pair of rabbits." Mello snickered. "And he manages to keep me up all night."

L tilted his head sidelong, indicating that Mello was /still/ in some amount of discomfort. "In more ways than one."

Mello turned red and squealed. "No sex in 200 years will do that to you." He growled. "I'm going to…… um…… find a bathroom." Mello ran, not walked, ran, for the WC. "Damn you Near! Where's Matt when I need him!?"

Orihime stared after him. "I'd better go." She zipped off for the girls guest room.

"I know when I'm not needed." Yoruichi became a cat once more, and made for the practice grounds where Misa had been sheltered while she hibernated.

L's expression was priceless. "No grace, finesse, or class."

"I see that." Suddenly Light and L were the only ones in the room. L stood, and pulled Light into a kiss that, while chaste, was both beatific and graceful. Light shivered. "But you……"

* * *

**When you protect someone, you don't let them die…… when you strike, you kill. – Kisuke Urahara**

**Love won't save us every time, but it makes life more bearable. **

* * *

"Why don't we try again, only this time, you on the bottom."

Light realized what L meant. It was Light climbing on L that triggered his attack. Perhaps if he allowed L to have just a little bit of control of the situation this time, it would go a long way towards easing their relationship back to where it should have been.

"Lovely." Light murmured quietly.

"I should be saying that to you Raito-kun." L leaned against Light's chest. "With that cloak of diamonds, and your arms, I can be completely enfolded." L was referring to the shimmering black cloak of diamond hard scales, each shaped like tiny feathers. It was his strategic defense and greatest nuisance, because he couldn't remove it. It stayed attached to his head just like his mask. And his hair had turned the red that Kira's always had in his loneliest nightmares. His eyes had become clouded, taken on the same quality of L's, where one couldn't tell the pupil from the iris unless one got very close.

Light wrapped the other into his arms. "Love, what you call beauty is the scars from my sins. You lost your life to me, but in the end you won. Even dead you got to keep your heart."

"Sometimes darkness, when it clears, leaves something wonderful behind. Perhaps you'll figure out what's wonderful someday." L whispered.

"You turned into a sap." Light snickered.

"I did not."

"Yes, you did Ryuuzaki." Light smirked, scooping the other up.

L let out a very /cute/ squeak for a normally serious…… man. Not a shinigami, not an arrancar, people. Man.

Light carried L to the guest room. "I think we were discussing something?" He asked, setting the other down on the tatami.

"Yes, we were." L yanked the other down into a kiss. The two of them rolled over and over and then, clink…..

The radio they'd rolled into turned on and as if by some force of magic played the perfect tune for the situation.

_Baby you're all that I want.  
When you're lying here in my arms  
I'm finding it hard to believe  
We're in heaven._

They blinked.

"Corny?" Light asked.

"Very." There was a pause from L. "Leave it."

_Oh, thinking about all our younger years,  
There was only you and me,  
We were young and wild and free.  
Now nothing can take you away from me._

L deftly removed what little clothing Light still had on, (he'd never pulled his shirt back on.) Light's eyes widened as he looked up at the other. **This is what I wanted, love, honesty, no veils, no pretense, no hiding. **Then L's lips crashed down on his. Light eagerly met them, tongues twined, hands grasped at each other's hair. And Light no longer thought /anything/ at all.

_We've been down that road before,  
But that's over now.  
You keep me coming back for more. _

It was true. For some reason when it was the other way around, with L taking the lead, he wasn't as scared of Light, of being with him. Part of his mind was still screaming **dead deaddeaddeaddead. **But he thought louder, harder. **Light lightlightlightlightlight. **And **Minemineminemineminemine!** Carelessness had /never/ been a part of his nature. To suddenly plunge into something like this, the arms of someone who had deliberately hurt him, deceived him, was very hard for L to do.

But he had decided a long time ago, **I WANT HIM BACK!** That ferocity guided his hands as he removed his own clothing, and flattened himself against Light, kissing every part that he could reach, grinding against him and feeling the other groan beneath his ministrations.

_Baby you're all that I want.  
When you're lying here in my arms  
I'm finding it hard to believe  
We're in heaven.  
_  
Light couldn't have asked for a more beautiful sight. "I want you back." He husked, panting softly.

"You are /mine./" Softer. "I want you back too." L frowned, looking around for something to use for lubricant. "Damn."

The expression on his face was almost enough to make Light laugh. Then he grabbed L's hand. "Dear…… like this." And started sucking on the digits.

L's midnight orbs widened, his erection twitching almost painfully at the sight. "Raito-kun……" He panted, slowly removing his fingers from Light's mouth. "mmm…."

These were still Light's legs he was pulling onto his shoulders, muscled, lean, the legs of an Adonis. It was still Light's entrance he was gently pushing into, gently stretching, careful not the pinch or scrape.

_And love is all that I need  
And I found it there in your heart.  
It isn't too hard to see  
We're in heaven. _

Light forced his body to relax, eyes slowly lidding closed. Damn, 200 years without sex was as good as not having had it at all. He could tell his body was tight as a drum. **I don't care if I'm bloody and raw. I. Want. Him. Back.** Then suddenly sweet tasting lips were on his, a free hand deftly rubbing at his erection to ease the sting of preparation. "Mmmph……" It was enough to bring tears of joy back to Light's eyes. A vague memory of a cherry stem tied in a knot came to mind. Light laughed inwardly. **He's still a good kisser.** The arrancar twined his tongue with the appendage currently invading his mouth. **MINE!! **And finally it was not Kira giving that shout. Light, just Light.

_Now, nothing could change what you mean to me.  
There's a lot that I could say  
But just hold me now,  
Cause our love will light the way. _

The hands removed themselves from his entrance. "Raito-kun…… ready?" L asked quietly.

"Ryuuzaki, have I ever /not/ been?" Light smirked.

"Never." Agreed L as he spat into his hands, slickening himself as much as he could. "Here." He positioned himself at Light's entrance and pushed in slowly. Slowly. L could feel it, after 200 years and many of them in a non humanoid form, Light was back to being as tight as the horny teenage virgin that had demanded his attention and tried his patience two centuries ago. His eyes were closed, the pleasure taking the former detective, now shinigami in waves.

_Baby you're all that I want.  
When you're lying here in my arms  
I'm finding it hard to believe  
We're in heaven._

**Damn, this…. Has to be what they meant by love is blind. **Light's head thrashed back and forth, eyes squeezed shut, forcing his body to relax. It still felt like he was being pulled apart. A hand closed itself on his erection, caressing the shaft with the precision of a missile chasing its mark. A kiss, gentle and protective, landed on his forehead.

Light's eyes shot open, and lips slowly licked and sucked their way up his jawline. "Mine." Was hissed in his ear. "Mine."

"All yours……" Light panted. "All yours……" The sensations consuming him made arguing too much effort.

The inky grey eyes burning into him was all Light could see, there was /nothing/ else to his world right then.

_And love is all that I need  
And I found it there in your heart.  
It isn't too hard to see  
We're in heaven._

L was completely inside, and the two paused, panting, hard. Moonlight on orbs lighter than the sienna ones he remembered.

L tried to figure out which position would be least likely to trigger another attack. He didn't want to lose this time, this far, he would be losing to the ghost of a threat that had long since passed. Then he lifted Light's legs to his shoulders, carefully clamping the muscled limbs around his neck. "Bend your knees around my shoulders……" He panted. "Like this."

_Now our dreams are coming true.  
Through the good times and the bad  
I'll be standing there by you._

Light followed the other's lead, suddenly realizing the /angle/ he was held at. **Oh man. **When L began to move, he hit Light just right with the first thrust. The Arrancar screamed in pleasure. "Ryuuzaki!" Light's hand flailed for L's. It was caught, and squeezed and there was another thrust. The pleasure sending white behind his eyes.

Each thrust elicited a scream, a cry, a moan, a pant. L was going slow enough that it wouldn't be over too quickly, and fast enough that Light wasn't even registering anything beyond the sensation, the sound of his voice screaming out, the grunts, growls, and possessive chants of 'Mine, mine' and calls of 'Raito! Raiiiitooo!' The other dragged against him. "MINE!" L insisted.

"Yours! Forever yours……" Light groaned. "Ryuuzaki…… L…. gonna…. Oh oh oh oh oh ooooooooooh!!" Light screamed his lover's name into the night. White flashed behind his eyes as Light came, body twitching, clenching, twisting, writhing beneath the other.

Just the sight beneath him was enough to make L lose control. The fact that it was not, "Ryuuzaki" but "L" that howled from his lips, unwittingly L's real name, was enough to make L shout. "RAITO!" As he reached completion.

Light felt searing jets of semen spurting inside of him. "FASTER!!" Light hissed. "Damnit, faster!!"

L obliged, pounding into Light until he came again, and again and finally the two of them lost strength, falling into each other's grip in a sticky, sweaty mess. L slowly, gingerly pulled out of Light. They /both/ were sore after that.

_We're in heaven._

"You're bleeding Raito……" L murmured quietly in the other's ear.

"Ryuuzaki?"

"Hmmm?" L played with the edge of Light's arrancar hole, as if by giving it attention he could return what had been taken from his koi. Light hissed, breath hitching in pleasure.

"Shut up."

_And love is all that I need  
And I found it there in your heart.  
It isn't too hard to see  
We're in heaven._

Moonlight fell over the two shadowed forms. And Raito Yagami and L Lawliet could finally have in death what tragedy and violence had stolen from them. From Raito, innocence, from L, love.

Two Hundred years is a long time to wait for closure.


	6. Duel chapter: ScopeJubilee

Chapter Music Video:

Colors of the Heart by Uverworld

profile(dot)imeem(dot)com/gQjL5V/video/AmxVisYr/uverworldcolorsoftheheart/

Chapter Hanakotoba Flower

White Anemone

Romaji: Anemone

Sincere

Discussed in: Eureka 7, Anemone discussed the meaning of her name, though she had a different interpretation of her flower's name. However with Hanakotoba, sometimes different colors of the same flower have different meanings. She could have meant a different color of Anemone

One further note: Zephly's original inspiration was one Dr. Gregory House. He's no Hugh Laurie though. He's much more attractive.

Forgive me if I don't completely get Matt's character right. I haven't seen that part of the series yet. (Yaaaay, chocolate fiend ahoy!)

Once again, a chapter of this fic has two parts. Part 1 is Scope. Part 2 is Jubilee.

Scope refers many things. First to the 3.6 visual acuity of those with shinigami eyes. Also, Mikami has Uryu in his 'Scope' per say. And Uryu realizes the 'Scope' of what he's gotten himself into.

Jubilee is a reference to the song "Jubilee" by Mary Chapin Carpenter.

"_The people who love you are waiting, and they'll wait just as long as need be_." Really describes Matt and Mello's reunion in this chapter.

To clarify, however crass Mello may be, I really can't see him screwing around with the first joe he finds in the 11th division barracks. He's stubborn enough he'd probably keep his……… aherm……… innocence until he'd found Matt again. Mello never does anything by halves!

I also think, from what I've heard so far, Mello wouldn't have been happy taking over for L however much he may have bragged about wanting to. I really couldn't see him as anything, /but/ an 11th Division Thug. (Thug love to the 11th!) And he makes such a handsome 11th Division thug! He's got the scar to fit right in! I'll bet Yumichika even finds him 'pretty.'

* * *

**Scope**

"Okay, now I'm going to test your reflexes. If you scream, it means nothing's wrong with you. Yay you." Zephly Ophiucus strongly reminded Mikami of Dr. House in that old medical drama. And he seemed to have developed serious antipathy of the former prosecutor.

And he had to get a physical. He was dead and he had to get a physical.

WHAM! "YOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!" Mikami howled.

"Okay, we've established that there is nothing wrong with your nerve endings. Next, any abnormalities in vision or hearing?"

"Uuuuum…… if I'm dead, how come I still have the shinigami eyes?" Mikami asked worriedly.

"Dunno, Misa didn't have hers."

"My mask looks like an eagle."

"Wonderful animal the eagle. No other animal is better at brutalizing its fellow birds. The golden eagle can take down a deer if it hits the back of the neck. The Harpy eagle can eat monkeys. No matter what the kind it's the most destructive bird on the planet." A light got shined in Mikami's eyes. "Follow my finger." He continued. "The eagle was /almost/ not the national bird of the United States, did you know that?"

"Yes, Benjamin Franklin wanted the Turkey instead."

"Its stately, social, and tastes good deep fried and smoked."

"What's wrong with you. Bitter or something?"

"I hated Kira." Zephly said simply. "I was a prison doctor. The most gifted in the entire Kanto prefecture. I was an expert at diagnosing the kinds of things that prisoners did to each other. I could fix anything from a shank to the neck to a heroine pellet dissolving in my charges stomachs. Before Kira began his rampage, I'd only lost 2 patients in my entire career. He killed my patients, my responsibilities with a flick of the pen. He had no right to override my Hippocratic oath. Families get psychological gratification that the people who wronged them are rotting in hell on earth. By killing off criminals, Kira was really denying their victims families closure. Add in the fact that I'm a sore loser and insatiably curious and I'm not very happy to see you. Kira mocked my responsibility with /every/ prisoner he killed right under my nose. On my watch. That's enough to make any medical professional more sour than a rotten grape." Zephly said curtly. "Open your mouth, lets see if something flew in while you were screaming."

Mikami opened his mouth for Zephly to have a look.

"Good, now keep it there." Zephly had already collected blood samples for testing. "I'm going to run these."

"Why do I keep it there then?"

"Because it makes you look like the arrogant baboon you are. Hopefully something will fly in while I'm gone."

"Okay, what else is wrong with you?"

"You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Zephanaiya Takumi, at 10 am is stabbed by one of his own patients when the prisoner OD's on crystal meth that's been poisoned. The interactions between drug and poison cause the patient to hallucinate, when the doctors attempt to restrain him for treatment, he shanks Zephanaiya in the chest. His his left lung and left ventricle is punctured by a ten inch long shank and he dies drowning in his own blood." Zephly intoned.

Mikami was silent.

"You were on the scene when my koibito was killed at an anti Kira protest. You have the shinigami eyes. I said /exactly/ what you disagreed with, that Kira was a demon and a murderer and that he should find a special place in hell to be trussed up and barbequed. You decided to be a belligerent little prick. That's the reason why I don't like lawyers. You talk a paragraph when three words would suffice and you throw a temper tantrum if a witness says something that contradicts your black and white view of what's right and what's wrong. You even measure how wrong something is, Murder 1, Murder 2, Man 1, Man 2. Grand theft, Grand larceny. You weigh everything on a scale."

Mikami was silent, because Zephly was completely right. He had killed Szayel and Zephly both.

"I never gave you my name, yet somebody killed me. The Kira who did the deed didn't know who I was. Gee Sherlock, it would have had to have been somebody witht he shinigami eyes! One glance at me and you had everything you needed to make sure I both exsanguinate and drown. Congratulations Mikami-teme you win the booby prize. Be sure to apologize to my lover Szayel for killing him. He was a quincy, he taught me exactly how to see spirits. One thing that no human ever takes into account when they kill someone, contrary to the saying dead men tell tales. If you weren't my patient too now, I'd pay you back in triplicate for all the pain you caused the two of us."

Zephly left the room. "Carnelian, run an ANA scan, a tox screen, immuno, the works. Use a lot of big words in your lab report. I want to see if the glorified hairsplitter can translate medicalese into English." (1)

The woman arrancar blinked in surprise. "What does that tell you?"

"Nothing, it scares him. Scaring people who killed you is a good thing."

"Are you sure he's your killer?"

"The criminal always returns to the scene of the crime. A prosecutor consulting with the police on a case? That's unusual but not conspicuous. I can't be sure about Szayel, I think both Misa and Mikami were hidden somewhere at the protest where he was kiled. Kira didn't mean to, but he tended to do everything in fours. I know that he killed me though. Only Misa and Mikami had the shinigami eyes. I was not wearing any form of identification when I spoke with Mikami the first time. And I badmouthed Kira in front of him, calling him a monster, an egomaniac and a chronic psychopath. The only way he'd have been able to kill me was if he had the shinigami eyes, and for a long time I had no confirmation. Then he mentioned that he still had them. Therefore he had motive, means and opportunity. He's the one. And if he weren't my patient or the consequences put me in his job, I'd kill him on the spot." Zephly said sternly. "But I don't want his place in the pack of wolves, and I am better than an animal."

"I see." The female assistant to Zephly had learned to take her boss's cynicism since Szayel had gone into the coma in stride. She said nothing more as she went out to run tests. But leave the medicalese in the textbook.

* * *

"Come on Uryu!!" Orihime, Rukia, Uryu, Ichigo, Renji and Ryuuzaki were headed for the new old style ice cream partner that had opened up downtown. Light would meet them later, Urahara was trying to adjust his gigai technology to fit Arrancar, so that Light and Misa could hide in the open. Orihime waved them onwards, completely oblivious to the spiritual pressure moving its way across the building tops.

"I haven't had human world ice cream in ages." Ryuuzaki's eyes sparkled, even if he had the same flat tone as ever.

"Yep, a completely hollow free day." Ichigo stretched his arms wide. "Not a cloud in the sky!" He took a deep breath. "The air is as fresh as a city can get!"

* * *

"hang on….."

"What is it Mikami….."

"Spiritual pressures, four Seishoken shinigami, two humans."

"Who cares, we're looking for an /arrancar./" Pointed out Takada.

"Hang on….. wait where are you going?"

"Shinigami don't like Arrancar, but where do you think Light is most likely to hide? The last place you'd expect an arrancar to be, with shinigami."

"oh fine." The woman shook her head in disgust.

Two arrancar took off, running and taking flying leaps over the rooftops of the financial district.

* * *

"ooooh! Rukia look, look!" Orihime pointed to a stuffed toy bunny in the toystore window. "That's one of those old pokemon games, see? It's a Buneary! Come on, I'll get it for you!" Orihime squealed and dragged Rukia into the toystore.

"We'd better follow." Ichigo sighed. "Come on guys, we'll look at the models, not the /dolls./ This is the only store in town that sells Gundam Models, they're almost impossible to find anymore. I wanna find a Deathscythe model, not the new one from Waltz, the /oldschool/ Deathscythe."

"I can't believe they still make them after 200 years. Near's missing Heavyarms, but other than that he has the whole set." L followed Ichigo into the store. "If they have it I'll get it for him."

* * *

Mikami peered over the edge of the building.

"I like icecream better than toys. I'll meet you there." Uryu was the last in.

**Human, but no lifespan. Does he……. **"Change of plan Takada."

"WHAT? No. No change of plan. I'm going to tear that ex of mine limb for limb!" Takada growled. "Mikami! Where are you going?"

"He has it."

"What?"

"The boy that broke off from the group, with the glasses and blue hair, he has /IT./" Mikami's nostrils flared, eyes stuck wide open as he traced the boy's path into the building.

"So? Wait, do you mean /it?/" Takada blanched.

"YES IT." Mikami hissed, following the direction the boy had gone. "Damn, where did he……."

"Looking for me?" An arrow missed the Espada by a hair. "I don't take kindly to being stalked."

Mikami fell backwards, a sword was beyond him in skill at the moment, so the warhammer was his automatic pick. The weapon was in his hand, ready to be swung.

"That's an interesting zanpakuto for an Arrancar." Uryu's voice was cold, arrogant.

"What are you?" Mikami demanded, "Humans don't have spiritual pressure."

"Oh all things have spiritual pressure. The question is how you use it." **I don't have Seele Schneider with me. This could be trouble. I need to act cool around these two. There has to be some reason why they singled me out. I'm not the weakest there, and I'm not the strongest either. Why me?**

Mikami raised his warhammer, seriously hoping he wasn't biting off more than he could chew. This was his first battle. Zephly must be laughing at him. **You'll know what to do. **The medic had said. YEAH RIGHT!

Sonido, that was the Arrancar technique, and he'd been told that Shinigami had "Shunpo" flash steps. But the boy was darting around in a fashion Mikami couldn't track, definitely the way Sonido looked.

At this point Takada had drawn her zanpakuto as well, the panel markings on her arm expanding into a shield. She hadn't tried using her abilities very much either, but behind the fan shaped panels glowing shapes, like feathers on an Egyptian fan, extended. These were created entirely from reishi. She drew her zanpakuto, a torso length Excalibur like blade. Takada began to circle Uryu warily as Mikami adjusted his grip on his hammer and rushed Uryu.

Uryu was quick to respond with Ginrei Kujaku, taking the blow on the shield web of the bow. **She's powering up for an attack. This is bad, they both have to be complete amateurs, look at how quickly I managed to confuse them. But that doesn't mean they aren't a threat. If anything, an inexperienced opponent is more dangerous. And I can't fight two of them at once and hope to win. The fact that most Arrancar, Shinigami and Vaizard prefer to fight one on one, rather than ganging up on one individual further proves that they haven't been doing this very long. But if they're this inexperienced, how did they find me? Why did they target me? Well, asking won't hurt, though they might not tell the truth. **

"How did you find me?" Uryu asked. "I'm not even a shinigami, I'm not the weakest of my group, nor am I the strongest. And you two are complete amateurs, you shouldn't have picked a fight with a more experienced target."

"What makes you think we're amateurs?" Takada raised her blade and the inelegant charge reminded Uryu very much of when Ichigo first got zangetsu. (2)

Uryu blocked, and the arrow that Takada dodged shot into the distance. "your stance for one thing." Mikami swung in from the right, with a blow that jarred Uryu's hand. "For another that you're both attacking at the same time. Every Arrancar and Shinigami I've fought, even the ones under Aizen's command, attack one at a time. They have never ganged up on a single individual at once. So I'm going to ask you again, rather than going for the weakest or strongest targets, **Why did you target me?"**

"You really don't know do you?" Mikami asked with a huge grin. "The Deathnote, give it to me and I'll walk away."

"I don't know what you're talking about." A chill shot down Uryu's spine.

"Yes, you do. You aren't a shinigami, you're a human. I have the shinigami eyes."

"Shinigami what?" Uryu demanded. CLANG BZZZZZ! Takada's sword rang from the shield of the bow on his arm. Uryu's arm was screaming in pain from the force of the blow. Mikami's warhammer was barely deflected. Uryu's assessment was proving correct. Despite Mikami and Takada's inexperience, he was getting pounded.

"Shinigami eyes! I can see your name human, there is no lifespan beneath it. You have a Deathnote. GIVE it to me!" Mikami growled.

Uryu understood. Inexperienced they may be, but somehow the male arrancar had a method by which to determine if a human had picked up a shinigami notebook. And he wanted it.

Uryu fumbled for his own cellphone, he had Renji's number, hopefully Renji was still with Ryuuzaki. Renji's number was busy. "DAMN!!"

Suddenly……… VWOOOOOM! A bolt of red energy fired at Takada. She raised her shield, which negated most of the damage, but she was still blown back against a heating unit on the rooftop.

"You know, I was hoping for some quality time with an old friend named Donkey Kong. And then you had to go and make noise. And now thanks to you shaking the buildings with your god damn arrows and your loud as hell swords and hammers and whatever shit, I have to beat the god damn minecart level AGAIN!" (3)

The vaizard who stood on the nearby rooftop had a pair of goggles sticking out of his pocket. He had a DS carrying case clipped to his belt. He had a fox shaped mask for a hollow form, and the whites of his eyes had turned black. He'd wrapped a scarf around his neck, and a fuzzy suade vest covered his shoulders and chest.

"I hate having to beat a level over again. So let me tell you nicely. Get out of here, or I will go Sephiroth on your asses and if you ask my friend Shinji, you'll hear how scary that is!"

"Butt out runt!" Mikami growled.

"This is our battle." Takada agreed.

"Warned you!" The vaizard made a headlong leap to the building top. His shunpo was lightning fast. CLANG! Mikami made a mistake most beginning fencers make. He'd held his warhammer too tightly. When the vaizard's sword hit his warhammer, his hands were jarred so badly that he dropped it. (4)

The blade scored Mikami along the right shoulder. He hissed in pain. "Let's get out of here Takada! We can't handle two at once!" He scooped up his warhammer and fled.

Takada hissed at Uryu as they retreated, retracting her shield and carrying her zanpakuto parallel to her body. "Brat, we'll get you."

Mikami looked coldly over his shoulder at Uryu. "You win this time Uryu Ishida. We'll get stronger, we'll take that Deathnote, and then you're OURS!"

"Jerks." The vaizard mumbled. He waved farewell to Uryu. "Hey, watch yourself with those two. They're trouble. You're a quincy right? Happy hunting Quincy." And off he went over the rooftops.

He'd dropped his goggles, and a tiny rectangular item on the roof. "He dropped his friend Donkey Kong." Uryu inspected the video game cartridge carefully. "A saltire, with the letters M, M, L, and N." He muttered. "He really loved this thing if he's marking it. Maybe Ichigo can bring it back, when I'm through yelling at him and Renji."

He found the entire group eating ice cream. "I hate all of you you know that? If one of the vaizard hadn't intervened I'd be Arrancar chow!" Uryu snapped.

"You were attacked?" Orihime paled. "Uryu are you okay?"

"An arrancar? What did they look like?" Rukia paled. "It wasn't Aizen was it?"

"They were pretty new to what they were doing. But somehow one of them knew I'd picked up /YOUR/ god damned notebook." Uryu snarled at L.

L swiveled abruptly in his chair. The ice cream spoon was dropped delicately into his bowl with a 'clang!' "You said one of them knew about it. Did you mention its existence to anyone?"

"No, from what I can tell, they wanted to bring it to Aizen."

L was staring at him, and Uryu was starting to fidgit. "We will come back for ice cream later. Urahara must know of this."

Uryu nodded, gulping as Ichigo and Orihime pooled their wallets to pay for the treat. Once more feeling almost hysterical, Uryu allowed himself to be lead home, once more under his friends' heavy guard. **Lets hope this doesn't become a trend. DAMN, are Nikkisashi shinigami this clueless or am I just lucky?**

* * *

**Jubilee**

The entire way back to Urahara shoten was made in silence. "Are, are, what has all of you drooping?" Urahara fanned himself lazily, but his eyes followed each and every face's expression. Something bad had gone down, that had turned a 'hollow free day' into a firefight.

"I was attacked by a pair of arrancar, who found out I'd touched that GOD DAMNED NOTEBOOK, without me even /saying/ anything. I didn't even say my name and they knew it!" Uryu was pale. "I didn't think Arrancar could be psychic, how the hell could he have known anything…….??"

Light watched Uryu trudge tiredly into the common room where training shinigami took a rest. "He must have had the shinigami eyes, there's no other way he could have known that. But how would an arrancar have shinigami eyes? Misa didn't have hers when she came out of the cocoon."

"That's not the strangest part of the encounter." Uryu said as Near and Mello made themselves comfortable in the lounge. "I got bailed out by the weirdest vaizard. I think somebody had been trying to get some peace and quiet. He said something about spending 'Quality time with an ape named Donkey Kong.' Then he wailed on them both, chased them off, and was gone before I could say anything, not even thank you." Uryu dug into his pocket. "He left these behind." He held out the goggles and video game cartraige. "This thing has to be an antique, I don't think video games have used cartraiges for over a century now."

Mello screamed in outrage, grabbing the goggles and game. "This is….. this is….." He burst into tears. "MAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTT!!" The poor shinigami began to bawl.

Nearly everyone in the room winced and covered their ears.

"You know that vaizard Mello?" Renji asked, his glance curious after seeing the younger shinigami's reaction.

"Its Mihael, thank you, and I know him! He was my boyfriend when we were still alive." Mello wailed, reaching into his pouch for a chocolate and chewing on it. Tears were streaming down his face as he turned the cartraige over. "Here's the proof!" He pointed to the Saltire and letters. "Matt, Mello, L and Near." He indicated what the initials stood for. "He put that sign on things that belonged to him so that the other kids at Wammy house wouldn't touch it." Mello was blubbering and not making much sense, near hysterical.

Ichigo turned to Mello. "Mihael right? Did this Matt guy mean that much to you?"

"EVERYTHING!!" Mello wailed.

Ichigo abruptly grabbed Mello by the arm. "Come with me then. Kon!" The modsoul waddled over. "Fork it!"

"Aaaaw Ichigo wh….. ACK!" Kon was yanked up by the head, the pill removed without a yes, no or maybe and swallowed.

"HEY, ICHIGO WHAT WAS THAT FOR??" Kon demanded, now in Ichigo's body.

Ichigo ignored him, already out the door. "Wait…… Ichigo where are we going?" Mello blinked away tears, somewhat dazed at Ichigo's sudden yanking and the fierceness in his voice and why was Ichigo going so fast?

"We're going to give that game back." Ichigo offered Mello a warm smile. "To find a vaizard, ask a vaizard. I don't think Shinji would have left your friend out on his own."

"You know where he is?"

"If he's with Shinji, then yeah, I have an idea where he might be." Ichigo dragged Mello bodily out of the shop until the stunned shinigami could bring himself to follow him in a whirlwind shunpo across the city. "Vaizard tend to gather in groups, they have territories, and they're curious enough about new vaizard in the area that they'll normally approach newcomers to see what they're up to. Shinji will either have seen your friend or if not know to look for him."

Mello nodded and wiped tears away from his eyes as he followed Ichigo. "How far off is it?"

"The warehouse district."

"Just my rotten luck that's the one place I /don't/ go. The emptiness of the place is creepy."

"The Vaizard converted the old warehouse into a training ground. They have an underground training field like Urahara's, with a tent city near the entrance to it that they live in. Believe it or not, its very comfortable in there." Ichigo told Mello.

"Lucky sop. They better not have laid a finger on my Matt!"

Ichigo took Mello's continued blubbering the whole way there in stride, after all, not many people who went to Soul Society found their loved ones again. That L had found Light was probably a miracle in and of itself. Mello must have been so upset over the years.

**Love won't save us everytime, but in the end, its all we really have binding us together. Love for each other, love for our world, love for life, love for everything.** Shunsui had said that in response to Ichigo's questions about his and Ukitake's relationship. It was something that the young Kurosaki could somehow picture working out between the two older captains, even considering how different they were from each other.

Finally they hit the abandoned warehouse district. "Hey…… they all look alike! Which one is it?" Mello asked Ichigo, blinking in surprise.

Ichigo turned to Mello, then silently walked up to one of them and pointed. "See how the ants turn aside? It's a barrier." He knocked on the clear wall. "OYE! Shinji! Its Ichigo! I came for a visit! Open up or I'll break the damn thing down!!"

"Keep your pants on." Shinji pushed the door open. "What's with all this in the middle of the afternoon? First the newguy gets his panties in a twist over a god damned……. Who's this?" He meant Mello, as the vaizard carefully made the signs to open the barrier.

"He's looking for a friend of his named Matt. He dropped some things, the guy's a vaizard, so I was hoping that maybe you could help us look for him." Ichigo explained.

"Well then, he's inside, whining about some video game he dropped, and I think he lost his goggles t……"

Mello squealed in triumph, Matt's spiritual pressure wasn't hard to find, even if he hadn't seen him in centuries Mello knew he'd know him when he found him again. The blur of black, gothic jewelry and blonde shot past Shinji. "What the hell?" The laid back vaizard demanded.

"MAAAAAAAATTTT!! YOU GODDAMNED BUTTON MASHING……. WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU??"

A head perked up from a PSP. The PSP was flying through the air an instant later as a Mello blur smelling of chocolate, leather and vodka and squealing in near hysterical glee tackled him to the ground.

A stunned Matt suddenly found himself being kissed all over. "MATT MATT MATT MATT MATT!!" Mello bawled in joy. "MAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTT!!"

"M…… Mello….." Matt's eyes widened, tears coming to his eyes. "You…… you're still here?" His voice softened. "I thought I'd lost you a long time ago….." He wrapped an arm around the excited blonde.

"NOPE! Still here! 11th Division 4th Seat!" Mello boasted. "I looked all over for you all this time and I never stopped." He sobbed.

"I'm here now. Welcome back. Have you seen any sign of the other Wammy kids?"

"Ryuuzaki's 12th division's 4th seat. And Near is in 13th division with captain Ukitake." Mello wiped at his eyes.

Matt sat up, carefully guiding a still nearly hysterical blonde with him. "I've missed you so much. You goof, but how did you know where to find me?"

"The quincy you ran into earlier, he's a friend of Ichigo's." Mello indicated the orangehead who was talking with Shinji and Hiyori near the entrance. "I knew it was you when he found these." Mello held out the goggles and cartraige. "Then Ichigo said he knew where a bunch of Vaizard lived, and he dragged me off by the arm!"

"Huh, funny thing, at the time I wasn't interested in saving that guy's ass, I was just annoyed at the noise they were making. You wouldn't believe it! That bitch Takada and her psycho space case Mikami were both Arrancar! And pretty bad mannered ones at that!"

"No way……. That BITCH is still around??" Mello hissed. "I'm going to take her out! For GOOD!"

"You can do that after I do this." Matt hauled the other around for a kiss.

Mello squeaked, blushing like a schoolgirl and falling into his lost boyfriend's arms. "Could you do that again?" He said, face about as red as a tomato, but with a huuuuge grin.

"I can do more than that." Mello shrieked in delight as he was scooped up bridal style and carried away. "This will sound strange coming from me, but video games have been there for 2 centuries, YOU just got here! And you've been waiting for me long enough."

"I'm so glad his priorities are straight." Ichigo watched them go, rolling his eyes and shaking his head.

FWOOSH! Into Matt's tent, and Mello hit the bed with an elated giggle and wrapped his arms around the other. "I've been waiting for you forever." Mello corrected.

"Okay, for forever." Matt nuzzled his missing boyfriend. "So……. Did you wait /this/ long for getting nailed?"

Mello's face turned purple. "HEY! I remained faithful for two hundred years! You should be grate……." Matt cut him off with a long, long kiss. Mello had stayed a virgin for 200 years? Wasn't that a little overboard?

"You silly goof." Oh well, this was his chocolate eating, cussing, sometimes drunken leather wearing shinigami, still /his/ Mello. And the video game officianado's grin was /huge!/

"Damnit, I don't care if I'm raw and bleeding, fuck me now damnit!"

Yes, same old Mello.

Clothes flew, intermingled with kisses. Soon as his boyfriend grabbed the lube Mello had him in a tackle on the bed. The two rolled over and over, fighting for position. Mello lost on purpose, groaning at the ministrations on his bare skin, arching against the other. "MINE." He hissed.

A finger traced the scar on his face. "Always." Mello lay back, enjoying the attention. Hands moving on his body, lips searing his neck and chest.

Mello all but howled when Matt took him in. And he could /feel/ the other's laughter without even looking. A hand clamped onto his thigh, and something slick carefully pushed its way in.

_This is, probably the most serene I've been since Kyoraku konso'd me into the soul society. Life is so ironic, I don't get to be truly happy until I'm two centuries in the grave. _

Mello couldn't hide the blush creeping into his cheeks. Matt now had two fingers inside of him. Mello closed his eyes, forcing himself to relax. And then Matt found the one spot that made relaxing impossible.

This time Mello did howl, that was sensitive! Matt kept brushing at it, and Mello's head thrashed back and forth with the screaming he was having far too much fun doing.

The hand was removed, and a kiss shut Mello's mouth quite nicely. "Do shut up."

"mmmph……" Blushing, the bear hug Mello gave his koi got a squeak from the other man.

"If you'll hold still and relax I can make this feel better."

Mello felt his koi right there. "Damnit, shut up and fuck me already."

"Still the same….." Mello felt arms wrapping around him.

And then Mello felt the other easing into him. "nnnmmm……" He whimpered, head thrashing back and forth.

Matt let his hand ghost over the other's erection and the sensation completely distracted Mello from the pain until his koi was done.

Matt gave the other the chance to adjust. "D….. damn……" Mello panted, wriggling just a bit. "…… if that felt good I can't wait to see what you do next."

"Maybe if I shove a chocolate bar in your mouth you'll stop screaming. You know Hiyori throws /footware/ when she's angry. So keep /quiet./"

"Forget whatever bitch that is, fuck. Me." Mello growled. "I don't care if I'm raw and bleeding after."

Matt would take care anyway, and Mello gasped as he began to move. His hands flailed, and grabbed Matt's shoulders, demanding every kiss and caress Matt gave him. And when something /other/ than Matt's hand hit that spot.

Mello screamed for /real/. Every whimper, cry, yell and scream of his lovers name came without shame or fear. This was pure Mello, primal, feral, fearless and loving every bit of attention he got.

His sheer joy merged with feral pleasure, every scream sounding more like a girl than a man, getting stronger and stronger.

Matt swallowed Mello's scream as he came, violently, with a kiss. He kept thrusting until Mello had worn down from his high. The two were exhausted, covered in sweat and cum and Mello had the biggest grin on his face.

Matt slowly pulled out and then turned them so they were lying on their side. Mello snuggled against him. "Did I mention I'm happy to see you?"

"Shut up and sleep." But Matt was grinning also. "Silly goof."

* * *

Ichigo was listening to the noises the two were making. "Is he that good or is Mello that crass?"

"Dunno, but I'm getting a hard on just listening." Shinji grimaced. "Lets get something to drink instead. You know Sado was considerate enough to bring us both corona /and/ tequila?"

"What did you do to deserve that?"

"Offer a training partner. Tell you about it /away/ from the audio porn." Shinji's grin was wicked.

"You are /so/ bad."

"Thanks for bringing Matt's boyfriend back."

"Go to hell." Ichigo laughed.

* * *

1. CarnelinCarmen, as in the female doctor from House. I usually love drawing paralells between Zephly and House. This exchange between him and Mikami was a lot of fun to write!

2. I'm actually picturing Saya's typical charge in Blood, blade held to side and charging headlong to swing in a /nasty/ slice.

3. The game levels of donkey kong I hated the most were the minecarts and barrels. Talk about frustrating!

4. I've fenced before. Your instructor will warn you your very first match. If you grip your foil too hard, your wrists will be screaming by the time the match is over, and your blade is too vulnerable to a beat or a beat/lunge combination. These two moves are about the most aggressive of the basic foil moves I was taught. You'll drop it.


	7. Mission

Damn, L's dead Jim. Errr….. Light. Baaaaaaaaad! Bad Light, bad! No biscuit.

Oh well, I can write L's death flashbacks pretty well now. Oooooh, but I cried the way I did when Master Robinton died! (sob) Ah, now there was a Death scene fit for a bard!

I's sad, half my plants are dying. The other half are just as green as ever. The problem is that one of the ones that's dying was given to me by my mom, the other uuuuuh, I've had that for 2 years, there hasn't been so much as a hiccup and now its dying. (sob)

I have two Bleach heraldic plants sprouting in my flowerpot garden! Gentian (Bachelor's Buttons) which is on the 3rd Division insignia, and Cyclamen which is on the 2nd's.

Southern Weyr's Search Cycle draws to a close this coming weekend. Its down to the wire! Hopefully after that I'll be able to update more frequently. But I left a teaser at the end for the next chapter.

See, I gave it a lot of thought, and I agonized over it over and over.

But in the end, the question "Which reincarnated Task Force detective gets to see hollows?" had only one answer.

**CONGRATULATIONS**! Matsuda you won the booby prize!

And now, for responses from the mailbag.

**Pirate Captain Bo**

The dropped Deathnote belongs to Ryuk's adopted little sister Mirai. Remember Ryuk wasn't alone when Uryu and Orihime found them?

By now Ryuk knows better.

Mirai, unfortunately does not know better. She's kind of... perky. In a scary way. I kinda pictured a shinigami with an Orihime sort of persona. Physically she's a more graceful (but definitely less coordinated!) version of Ryuk, and I wanted her to be lovable enough to fill in the 'Compassionate' female shinigami role left behind by Rem. (there is no substitute for Rem! May Mirai do her memory justice!)

Mirai likes junkfood, books (she collects them like a magpie does shinies) fooling around with (and sometimes breaking) human technology, and she's /reasonably/ intelligent in that she's got a good memory for details. An Apple (What other brand? :) ) iBook laptop is her treasure, pride and joy. She scavenged it from a dumpster and actually got it to work.

But when it comes to the details that /matter, like where she dropped her Deathnote. Uuuuuuh... that remains to be seen.

One of the notes mentioned in Vol. 13, How to Read, states that there are also white and red deathnotes. But these two variations don't affect the powers of the Deathnote. They're just rare, pretty, and thus coveted.

Mirai: Maybe now I can get a pretty white one! PLeaaaaaaaaase Oniisan?

Ryuk: XD We've got a lovely memory on this one.

Ryuuzaki: XD you're telling me.

I forgot to mention, I could somehow picture Matt as more of a Sephiroth than a Cloud.

**the Sadistic Homicidal Child**

Mikami was dissillusioned at the end before he was captured. He'd very likely blame Light for what happened to him neh? And Raito would likely be replaced with Aizen in his mind, not as God but as a charismatic leader who can help him 'achieve justice.'

* * *

**Mission**

When Ichigo returned to the Shoten, he was alone. He returned to the lounge to find Misa peering over Uryu's shoulder as the Quincy made every effort to draw the two arrancar that attacked him.

Uryu Ishida can sew. He cannot draw. All he'd been able to do so far was draw the armor, uniforms and weaponry the two had on them. Any attempt at faces and he couldn't do anything. "Urrg, this is so frustrating!"

"Hey, you're drawing better than I did!" Misa said cheerfully. "Think you could design a dress for me? You look like you'd be a great fashion designer."

Ichigo laughed. "Ishida sews, very well."

Uryu nodded. "I could draw their armor because I treated it like drawing a pattern. Believe it or not, Misa, I made the outfit I'm wearing by hand."

"SUGOOOOOOOOI! I'd have loved to have you designing for me while I was still alive!" Misa squealed. "I was a model! I love handmade clothes! They have so much love sewn into them!"

Uryu rolled his eyes. "Ichigo, did you get any information that would help?"

"While Mihael and his little boyfriend were catching up, I heard his boyfriend identify the two attackers. But all I have is a name."

"That's better than what I've got." Uryu pointed to his designs. "This is what they were wearing. And I sketched their zanpakuto and armor. They had a roman short sword and a war hammer, and a shield and Excalibur."

"Alright, I got sirnames, Mikami and Takada."

"WHAT??" Misa demanded. "Omigod! I know those two! Uryu they're no one to sneeze at! Kiyome was so mean!! And Mikami was downright deluded! During the Kira years there were four Kira with complete control over a Deathnote. Myself, Raito, Higuchi and Mikami. Light killed Higuchi, I don't know what happened to his spirit though. Mikami and I had shinigami eyes. Light used to have us sneak into places and identify targets. Mikami's accomplice was Takada. She was the one who killed Mello, but Light had her killed soon after."

"Okay, so what are these shinigami eyes?" Uryu asked.

"Light didn't tell you? Oh I suppose he wouldn't have thought of it. A person with a Deathnote can trade half their lifespan for a nikkisashi's sense of sight. It creates colorblindness, but it also gives you a 3.6 visual acuity and you can see the name and lifespan of any given target. If you /own/ a deathnote then your lifespan doesn't appear, because technically you're acting on behalf of a shinigami. If a person is dead already, and you're viewing them in a photograph, you can't see their name and of course there's no lifespan to look at. That's how you identify if a target is dead." Misa sighed helplessly. "Since Mikami still has his shinigami eyes, he was able to find out that you'd found a Deathnote. I just hope Aizen doesn't get his hands on one!" Misa wailed that last in despair.

"Hey guys! Yamamoto's on the video phone!" Light said cheerfully. "Come see! He's talking to Ryuuzaki!"

Ichigo dashed down the corridor, Uryu and Misa after him.

Yamamoto was speaking with L. "Ryuuzaki, congratulations on your promotion to Lieutenant. Captain Ukitake will be looking forward to working with you on your return. In the meantime, you given the following orders. You are to protect the Deathnote currently locked in Urahara's safe. You, Near and Keele are Uryu Ishida's protective detail. You are not to treat him as a perpetrator, you are to treat him as you would a witness to a crime. We will not lose the last Quincy to a nightmare from a fiasco that should not have happened. You, Near and Keele are to protect Yagami and Amane, and when the shinigami who dropped her Deathnote has returned return it to her. At all costs, prevent the Deathnote from falling into Aizen's hands. When the shinigami has come back for her Deathnote, give it to her and bring Yagami and Amane to me. Yagami Raito, you have offered your intelligence information on Aizen in return for amnesty. For this I am very satisfied to give you and Amane shelter in the Seireitei. However, if I find anything to prove you two are untrustworthy. The sokyoku no longer exists, but I can find an elegantly brutal fashion in which to execute you both for betrayal and the mess you made that we had to clean up two centuries prior."

Light and Misa knelt before Yamamoto. "Yes sir."

"Yes sir, thank you."

"Hey, don't we get to do anything in this?" Ichigo asked irritatedly.

"Deputy Kurosaki, you assistance is welcomed, but not required. Ryuuzaki, Near and Keele worked the original Kira case. Light Yagami and Misa Amane were Kiras. The five of them have more information between them than all of you and your friends put together. If they say that you are in danger, then you are to leave. No questions asked." Yamamoto ordered.

"Ryuuzaki, Nearu, the both of you are not acquainted with Kurosaki. He and his friends are more than willing to go renegade if they sense either danger or a setup. They have a /very/ good grasp of a person's character and Kurosaki beat Zaraki in an out and out firefight. Trust their loyalty and their intuition. I understand Ryuuzaki that you do not work with civilians. Therefore I am making it clear right now that you have no choice in the matter. You are to cooperate with Kurosaki and his squad or face the consequences. Am I plain?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well sir."

"Uryu Ishida. I hope you realize, that if you are not careful, the situation you've gotten yourself into could cost you your life. Further, the Deathnote cannot get into Aizen's hands. If it does, Kurosaki is a shinigami, he cannot be killed. But yourself, Orihime, and Sado and anyone connected to you three can consider yourself dead if he gets his hands on it. Not to mention that if he gave it to Mikami, Mikami could gather the necessary deceased souls in Karakura to make the King's Key in 72 hours. Everything right now is riding on you staying alive. Ishida, do you understand the gravity of your role in this? Aizen will come after you with every force he's got now that he knows there's a Deathnote floating around Karakura."

Ishida blushed, but bowed his head.

"Very well then, Ryuuzaki, congratulations on your promotion."

"Yes sir."

The call hung up.

"Sir huh?" Light teased. "I never thought you the 'sir' type."

"It is best to always be polite to one's superiors." Ryuuzaki said with a small smile as he nibbled his thumb. "Besides, I can't follow my 'rules' if I am ordered not to."

Near was still looking sidelong at Uryu. "Ishida-san, perhaps you should remain in the shoten. I'm sure Ryuuzaki can arrange a pair of hand……" Misa calmly cuffed the chibi upside the head.

"Do you have /any/ concept of courtesy or tact?"

"……"

"I guess not."

"Please tell me there's some way to make him shut up?" Ichigo hissed to L.

"I believe the only way to do so is with Hitsugaya, a large amount of lubrication, and some toys not commonly sold in toystores." Okay, that was frightening. (1) "Near is not easily dissuaded from a goal. I've been trying for centuries."

"You can't be happy about this, though congratulations on the promotion."

"If I recall correctly, a shinketsu shinigami whose been deputized can consider him or herself a member of the division they've been deputiz…….."

Rukia's foot connected with Ryuuzaki's head. "RRRRRRG, how could taichou put /you/ as our lieutenant??" Rukia demanded. "Is he crazy? He put a goddamned monkey as our……."

Light quickly scrabbled out of the way, pulling Ichigo along with him. He knew what would come next.

Just in time. WHAACK! A capoeira kick had Renji and Uryu diving out of the way as Rukia went flying, shrilling in outrage.

Near just stood there, the expression on his face seemed to indicate to Ichigo that this was a regular occurrence.

Rukia yelled in outrage. "I HATE you, how could taichou have picked /YOU/ he should have picked somebody with a bit more of a heart!" There was another punch.

It didn't even connect, another kick had Rukia ducking out of the way.

"By what do you define heart?" Ryuuzaki asked, as he and Rukia circled.

"Kaien was kind, and caring. He gave his life for his wife's honor! You're just….." Rukia started crying. "You're no Kaien Shiba." She hissed.

Light could hear no more. He pulled Rukia away. "Ryuuzaki, its obvious she's upset."

"Rukia stop it." Ichigo stepped between Ryuuzaki and Rukia. "Rukia, Kaien wouldn't want you to be sad forever right? He'd want somebody in there taking care of his men. He'd want Ukitake taichou taken care of since he's always so sick."

"Sentaro and Kiyone could have done that! He just wanted the position because he hated the captain he had! At least Sentaro and Kiyone /like/ their captain. How do we know he won't transfer out if he doesn't like taichou??"

"Its true that I don't like Kurotsuchi, but I also don't trust him. He's incompetent. I do however respect Ukitake taichou. And I trust him as well. He's fair, calm and kindhearted. Kurotsuchi reminds me of Light when he was Kira."

"Okay, that's going a little too far." Light rolled his eyes. "I've heard some folks say Kurotsuchi's something out of a nightmare."

"I know, he isn't even attractive. Uuuugly." Ryuuzaki said evenly. "Besides Light, you were out of your mind when you used that power. Kurotsuchi is always out of his mind. Urahara was much easier to work with."

Rukia watched Ryuuzaki like a hawk. "Let me go." She hissed, then turned around and walked away. "Its not the same without Kaien. He and Miyako were the patriarch and matriarch of the 13th. Thanks to Aizen we were robbed of both."

"Well she has an attitude." Light watched Rukia go.

Near sighed. "Ryuuzaki, everyone in the thirteenth division /adored/ Kaien. Believe it or not he was very kind to me when I arrived. I never understood him. To me he made no sense. But I did appreciate him. Its thanks to him I achieved Bankai."

* * *

_Years earlier..._

"Hey Near!" Kaian whacked the puzzle across the floor. "Talk to me."

"What did you do that for?"

"You do paperwork, you play, you do more paperwork. You never go outside, you only fight when you have to. You're brilliant but you never do anything. How come?"

"The outside world is boring. Besides, puzzles help me think." Near reached for the puzzle again.

Kaien blocked his reach. "Let's spar."

"……"

"You have a lot of potential as an officer Near. But you never put the effort into it, the heart, the sense of the individual that comes from taking what you're given and truely making it yours. Come on, train with me. I guarantee, if you train with me you won't be bored for a long time."

"I'd rather stay here."

"NOT. An option." Kaien grabbed the little shinigami by the foot as Near made a dive to get back to the toys. "Ukitake doesn't have a choice about staying inside, /he's/ sick. You're perfectly healthy."

Near was by this time being dragged by his feet, scrabling at the floor and looking quite frazzled. "Shiba-fukutaiiichoooo my toys!"

"Kaien." Kaien corrected. "You're too polite." Kaien stood Near up and dusted him off. "Call me /Kaien./ You know, I've never heard your birth name." Near's hair was frazzled, and he was blinking like an hour with a lantern shining on him. Well, Kaien tended to have that effect on people.

It was only then that the former detective comprehended what the fukutaichou was saying. "I like Near better……"

"'near' isn't a name, its an adjective. Your name officer?" Kaien growled warningly. His eyes were sparkling with amusement though.

Near blushed. "Nate….."

"That wasn't so hard!" Kaien fluffed Near's hair with a huge grin. "Your sirname officer?"

Near blushed, crossed his arms over his chest and refused to look at Kaien. "During the case, letting our real names be known meant death. I'm not used to………."

"Hmmm…… I see. A little sparrow like you should learn to fly with the rest of the flock. Have you discovered your Zanpakuto's name yet?"

"No……"

"Well, there's a reason for that. You need to trust your comrades before it will trust you."

"Her."

"Hmm?"

"She's a her. I know it."

"Oh really, how much of her has appeared yet?"

"Not much…… sometimes I still dream about…. About……. But when I get upset over it and I fall back asleep, I feel like there's a feathery…….. thing, beneath me. I'm being held and cared for and warm and……"

"aaaaaah, she's trying to comfort you." That was the first insight Kaien Shiba had into the mind of a Wammy House Brat.

That was how Kaien Shiba started training Near for Shikai. And from there Near continued training for Bankai. He learned to trust his comrades, but to him, he'd answered to 'Near' for so long, 'Nate Rivers' didn't exist anymore.

It didn't matter. Near found Hitsugaya soon after he began special 'training' with Kaien to try and achieve Bankai, and the day after they got together Tosuhana billowed open into the huge silver bird that had appeared in his dreams.

* * *

"I'm not familiar with Ukitake's division, perhaps I should have spoken with them more when I applied." Ryuuzaki said thoughtfully.

Light watched the two. "Ryuuzaki don't worry about it. It takes people awhile to get you, once they see you're a pretty nice guy, well……. A bit eccentric but it just takes time to get to know someone."

"I suppose. Hopefully that won't be the universal reaction. I don't think they trust somebody from the twelfth, more of a sign that Kurotsuchi is incompetent."

Light shook his head. "Is Kurotsuchi the one that put Szayel in a coma?"

"he's still alive?" Ichigo blinked. "I thought Kurotsuchi killed him."

"No, he didn't. You know how if somebody's kidneys are failing you put them on dialysis until they can get a transplant?"

"Yeah, my dad's a doctor, I know exactly what you mean."

"Zephly, the doctor for the Arrancar, he's Szayel's lover. He fixed Szayel's injuries, sedated him, and put him on a similar machine to get the toxin out of his system."

"I thought Arrancar executed their wounded." Ryuuzaki commented. "I was told they just tend to eliminate anybody on their side who can't fend for him or herself."

"Actually, Zephly and Szayel knew each other since they were alive. There's a lot of love their between them. Appearantly Aizen gives Zephly just as much power as he would an Espada."

"Interesting."

"Yeah." Light took Ryuuzaki's hand, "Congratulations on your promotion. Lieutenant L." He gave the other a smooch on the cheek.

Ryuuzaki smiled, well, smirked, and leaned against Light. He nodded farewell to Near as they headed for the guestroom. "So, feeling better?"

"Not entirely. Urahara's been giving me the poke and prod trying to get a gigai made, the problem is that it keeps spitting me back out. When the effort finally reopened my wounds Urahara told me to take a break."

"Hmm…… perhaps we should both take a break then. You know, I never finished giving you that foot massage."

Light laughed. Then he paused, face darkening. "Ryuuzaki, you figured out what was coming, that's why you were standing out there in the rain wasn't it?"

"Yes, although I was feeling especially sad that day. The bells, I never answered your question. I was remembering the bells, of the church when my parents died. The orphanage I went to had a bell tower too. I used to go up there to study."

Light was quiet, it was clear he was feeling ashamed. But he waited for L to answer his question.

"I suspected when a piece was torn out of the notebook. Rem wasn't exactly forthcoming, when a witness is being intimidated and the person intimidating them is standing in the room they usually seem to magically develop amnesia. I also suspected that at least one of the rules had been made up. That's why I was going to have someone test the book. And Light, when you became Kira once more, the change in your behavior was almost immediate." He turned so that Light was facing him. "Raito……" Ryuuzaki shook his head, using the affectionate name, the Japanese pronunciation rather than the English. "I never put my finger on it. Something that day, warned me that I wasn't going to be around long. You had become Kira again, you were the one most in a position to do it." Ryuuzaki looked up at his lover. "You were transparent Raito……" The look in his eyes was both loving and sad.

Ryuuzaki pulled the other down into a kiss, not steamy, just tender, sweet. Light's expression was just as anguished.

The beeper that called Ryuuzaki to deal with a hollow went off. "I guess I'd better get moving, this one isn't too far away."

"Go, Urahara asked me to help him with his research."

"Urahara is a fair man. I was the only member of his staff that remained after his exile." He turned to go, and Light watched him leave.

"has love truly triumphed over the monster Raito-kun?" Urahara was standing behind him.

"I hope so." Light said quietly. "I love him, maybe that's all I need to heal."

"**He** still has not healed."

"I didn't expect him to automatically. Killing your lover isn't going to be water under the bridge even after 200 years."

"I see, well, you'll know that he has forgiven you, Raito, when Ryuuzaki tells you the name that Rem used to kill him with."

Light watched the direction Ryuuzaki had gone in, a worried frown on his face.

Far away, Ryuuzaki took the route to the battlefield in flying leaps, a small smile on his face as he raced off to meet the enemy.

* * *

Next chapter……

_Matsuda, open your eyes. _

**What happened? I thought I was going to be crushed by that monster. This guy dressed in black, he seems so familiar somehow. Its like I know that I can trust him, but I've never seen him before!**

"Matsuda get up and MOVE!" (2)

* * *

1. I'm exaggerating. I don't have a very good grasp of Near, but given how much he hates Kira, I'd be willing to lay money on him annoying Uryu to the point of violence at least once.

2. I was trying, very hard, to follow the format in the anime, where "Next Episode" has a narrative by one of the characters and a teaser as far as the content.


	8. Matsuda

Matsuda

Okay, the chapter music video is Ichirin no Hana by the High and Mighty Color. This was the third opening for Bleach, and probably the one that I like the least, but its nice and loud.

hatsugai(dot)imeem(dot)com/video/uYn4LbJV/highandmightycolorichirinnohanamusicvideo/

* * *

**Chapter Hanakotoba flower**

Azaelea

Kanji - 躑躅

Romaji – Tsutsuji

Meaning – Patient, modesty

* * *

Notes: Yes, I know there's already an episode called Matsuda. But this is pretty self explanatory. Poor Matsuda doesn't know what to think of hollows and shinigami. And where the hell has he met Ryuuzaki before? Hmmmmm…… XD

(mimics toonami) You guys ready to make the magic happen?

Heartsbond 43 is in the pipe, five by five.

We're in the green, chap is cued for launch.

(topples off her chair)

* * *

**Matsuda**

Karin was, in the end, stuck giving Matsuda extra help with his soccer skills. She was very uneasy about remaining in the area as long as she had. Karin could always tell when there were hollows about, even if, unlike Ichigo, she had no shinigami powers to fight them with. Karin could sense that there was one in the general vicinity. Matsuda's practice session was very likely to come to an abrupt end, she had to hurry.

In the meantime, Ryuuzaki was making his way to the battlefield. "This one is not easy to find, is this one of Aizen's? The ones that can hide their riatsu?" He looked around. "The fastest way to find it would be to find its target."

Then he caught the flash of movement at the soccer field. "Kurosaki's sister…… she has a pretty high spiritual pressure for a ten year old. If he's after prey, that's the first place he'll go. I just hope I can reach it!" The place was probably at least five minutes away, and from the gargantua darkening nearby Ryuuzaki didn't have that long.

Karin turned, sensing the ripple in the air. **This isn't good, it might already be too late. **"Matsuda, we're done for now."

"What? But we haven't even been here an hour!" Matsuda looked around, confused. He was blinking in surprise and confusion.

"Practice is over. We'll meet tomorrow. Go……….." Karin never got to finish. This hollow appeared to be a cross between a bull, a cheetah and a ram, and it plowed headlong towards them. Karin went flying.

Her screams were more of outrage than injury, as the more beligerant of the Kurosaki twins pulled herself painfully up on her elbows. "MATSUDA! **RUN**."

Matsuda did run, but he screamed. It was a sound of primal and utmost terror. His head whipped around behind him to see the distance of the danger and he tripped, going down with a yell.

Karin realized at that moment.

Matsuda could see them. The hollow wasn't targeting Karin.

The hollow wanted Matsuda.

Karin staggered slowly to her feet. **Damn, I can't get a hard enough shot with my legs all twisted up. Please Matsu, get up and run for it!** Karin closed her eyes, opening her spiritual pressure with a roar in an effort to attract the attention of a shinigami, /any/ shinigami in the area! Karin had learned a thing or two from Ichigo's charges off to assist, including how to add a tone to her spirit pressure. She laced her riatsu with outrage, terror, hatred, desperation, until her riatsu rippled dangerously with the emotion she was giving off.

Matsuda's mind was panicked, sheer terror drove his attempts to scramble to his feet, even crawling to get out of the way of the monster. **I'm not fast enough! This is it. Its gonna kill me. **

**I'm stupid, I'm helpless, I'm the class klutz, why'd this have to happen to me? Aizawa-kun could have gotten away…… Soichiro-sempai could have fought back…… I'm so weak…… **

"MATSUDA RUN!" Karin cried helplessly, limping forwards to try to help. **I can't reach him in time. **Karin whimpered as the hollow snarled, raising one massive paw ready to crush Matsuda in a single blow.

Matsuda ducked, bringing his hands up to cover his head as the paw came down. **Sorry Karin…… **

There was a wumph, and then nothing happened. Matsuda flinched, fully expecting to be crushed.

"_Open your eyes Matsuda"_ a tenor baritone voice commanded him. The voice sounded so familiar, it sounded annoyed, and amused, and so completely calm it was almost infuriating.

Matsuda cracked open an eye cautiously. He gasped at what he saw, eyes widening in an annoying 'déjà vu' expression.

A man, dressed in a black kimono and hakama, held a huge celtic broadsword aloft, he had actually /stopped/ the downward thrust of the hollow's paw with just that massive sword.

His hair was messy and black, his eyes as he looked back at Matsuda were dark, cloudy in color with bags under them like he hadn't slept. Not only that, this guy was barefoot! What kind of guy ran around in black, carrying a sword and not wearing shoes!

**What happened? I thought I was going to be crushed by that monster. This guy dressed in black, he seems so familiar somehow. Its like I know that I can trust him, but I've never seen him before! What the hell is going on? Who is he? How does he know my name? I've never even seen him before. Oooooooh. **Matsuda mentally groaned his confusion.

"Matsuda get up and MOVE!" This was Karin talking, limping the whole way she rushed Matsuda and grabbed the stupefied boy. "MOVE!" She hissed, hobbling painfully away hauling on her classmate's shoulder. Karin felt like her legs were going to fall off, trying to get Matsuda out of the way just compounded the damage.

"Aaaah, a Soul Reaper gets between me and my prey. Very well shinigami, I'll eat you too and have the kid for dessert!" Hissed the hollow, licking his lips.

"You interrupted **my** dessert. Shame on you." Ryuuzaki quipped. SWISH! THWACK THUNK!

The hollow evaporated in a flurry of shards. An athletic young woman with rippling nutbrown hair was visible for a minute, and then the afterimage was gone.

Karin set Matsuda down and collapsed in a heap, rubbing legs so twisted and swollen that touching them was painful. "Matsuda you idiot. Why didn't you run?"

Matsuda looked ready to faint. "S…… sorry…… I was so terrified, I couldn't move. What the hell was that thing?"

"Its called a hollow. I'm surprised you can see it, or me." Suddenly the man wearing black robes was crouched between the two children, curled up rather fetal like, as he reached out a softly glowing hand to assess the damage to Karin's legs.

"Th….. thank you shinigami. I don't think I could have gotten him out in time!" Karin shivered.

"You know of us? And its Ryuuzaki child. Lieutenant Ryuuzaki of the thirteenth division."

"Sh…… sh……. Shinigami??" Poor Matsuda looked ready to wet himself. "D…… division, is that like a precinct?" Matsuda shuddered.

The man's back was to him, and he paused, almost amused at the comparison. "Somewhat. Shinigami divide their military into thirteen divisions and a stealth force." He said simply. "Tell me child, how do you know of shinigami?"

"My…… my older brother Ichigo, Ichigo Kurosaki…… he's a shinigami too." Karin blushed. "I don't think I'll be able to walk very well. Do you…… do you think you could carry me home? My dad's a doctor, he'll be able to take care of my legs."

"Alright…… though I should probably give your brother a call. I have a cellphone on me, would you like me to call him?"

Matsuda distinctly felt like he was being ignored. But he watched, and listened, wide eyed. The man was still crouched, watching the two intently as he nibbled on his thumb. He looked so familiar, but Matsuda wracked his brains over and over, still unable to find the source of his déjà vu. "Do I…… do I know you from somewhere?"

The man's eyebrows lifted, eyes narrowing. "I don't think so, I've never seen you before today." He turned to Karin expectantly.

"Sure, if I can borrow it." She held out her hand. "I'll talk to him myself."

"Alright." The shinigami sounded resigned. "I'll get into big trouble if its broken. Do you know the number of Urahara Shoten?"

"Sure, Ichi-nii goes there for sparring practice, and Jinta and Ururu play there after school." Karin was given the phone as she dialed.

"Moshi moshi! Urahara shoten, Urahara speaking."

"He…… hey hat and clogs, is Ichi-nii there."

"Yes, he is, who's this speaking?" of course, Karin realized. She'd never spoken with Urahara before, just with Jinta and Ururu.

"K…… Karin Kurosaki. I'm Ichigo's sister. I ran into a bit of trouble and I need to talk to him."

Karin heard a shuffle at the phone. "Karin? What happened?? Are you alright??" Ichigo sounded near frantic.

"Ichi-nii, a shinigami saved me and my friend Matsuda from a hollow. Matsu's terrified, and I twisted my legs trying to get away. Ryuuzaki, that's what the shinigami said his name was, he offered to carry me home."

"I guess, just don't draw a crowd, I'll meet you halfway. You're at the soccer field?"

"Yes, thanks." She handed the phone back to the shinigami.

"Ichigo?" He was holding the device by the edges, as if it were dirty somehow. "I'm going to carry Karin home. I have met your father before, he will know who I am. But please, bring my gigai so I don't get stared at?"

"You met dad? Sure I'll bring it."

"Yes. I'll see you there." The man stood up. "Matsuda, either keep up or go home." Ryuuzki didn't sound too pleased that he was there.

"Don't be so mean to him! Matsuda's a klutz, he's just always been that way." Karin said in defense of her friend. Then she turned to him with a grin that purposefully defied Ryuuzaki. "Matsuda, follow us home. My dad's a bit much to take in, but he'll be able to patch you up before you go home."

Karin was hoisted onto Ryuuzaki's back, piggy back style. The man had to be really strong. He was short but he carried her easily.

"Ryuuzaki-fukutaichou, I was…. I was hoping you could tell me, a little about my family. You knew dad right? How did Ichigo get his powers? What do the other shinigami think of him? What's the Soul Society like?"

Matsuda heard the rapidfire questions, and really couldn't track them. As the mysterious man calling himself a shinigami lead them home, he watched the happy smile on Karin's face as he told her about this place called Soul Society. "The other shinigami think that your brother is a good, strong officer. He defeated our strongest captains in a bid to rescue a friend from danger. Then, even though we had been hostile towards him and his friends, they turned around and protected us when the Soul Society came under attack. Karakura then became under the attack of Arrancar, right up until today. Arrancar are evolved hollows, powerful and horrifying. But your brother faced them fearlessly. He even charged into the realm the hollows themselves came from in order to remove his friend Orihime from danger, even if everyone else thought she had committed treason. As an individual, he is curious and interesting."

Suddenly, Matsuda ducked behind Ryuuzaki as a boy with wild orange hair and a severe expression, lead a physical, exact replica of Ryuuzaki forwards. "Thanks for your help Nova." The replica blushed and ducked his head.

"Nova was a wise choice Ichigo, thank you." Ryuuzaki gently let Karin down. "This will only take a moment Matsuda.

Matsuda whimpered as he watched Karin's legs fold under her, darting forwards to catch his classmate and break her fall. Karin was heavy for him to support, and the lad sagged trying to hold his friend up. "Karin-sempai, easy, don't hurt yourself. I'm sorry you got hurt its all my fault its……"

Suddenly a powerful, tanned arm gently pulled him and Karin into a standing position again.

The boy with the wildest spiky orange hair, tanned skin and a severe looking face was smiling kindly down at him. "Its going to be alright." Ryuuzaki was doing something with the replica of himself that Matsuda couldn't see. "Don't cry, you're safe. Thank you for staying with my sister. My dad's a doctor, let him patch you up at my place."

"O…… okay." Matsuda's expression as Ichigo fluffed his hair reassuringly was actually kind of cute. He blushed slightly, tears at the edges of his eyes, which he wiped on his shirtsleeve. "I…. I'm sorry. Its my fault Karin got hurt. She was trying to get me out of the way and I didn't move……I was too scared……" Matsuda stammered.

The orange haired boy smiled warmly to Matsuda. "Don't worry about it. Hollows are drawn to people with a large amount of riatsu, spiritual pressure. They sensed Karin's, and if you could see them too, then yours as well. We're just glad you're safe."

Ryuuzaki finished whatever he was doing, offering a small, gumball sized object to Ichigo. "Thank you, better put him back."

Ichigo pulled a stuffed toy turtle from his belt where he'd tucked it and pushed the item in.

Matsuda jumped, as instantly the toy came to life!

The turtle blinked in surprise, regarding Matsuda warily.

"H…… hello……" Matsuda stammered.

The turtle squeaked, and drew up inside his shell falling gently to the ground. Matsuda caught the toy plushie before it hit the pavement.

"Its okay, don't be scared."

'Nova' blinked in surprise from inside his shell, and then slowly, ever so cautiously and shyly, came out from within its confines. "How does it move like that?" Matsuda asked curiously.

"He, his name is Nova. He's a modsoul. Shinigami need to take physical bodies, called gigai in order to interact with humans, they use modsouls to swap places for awhile. My modsoul is Kon, but Urahara asked me to have Nova bring Ryuuzaki his gigai." Ichigo inclined his head towards Ryuuzaki.

Ryuuzaki looked /almost/ normal now, dressed in jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt. "Hello." Still barefoot and sucking on his thumb though.

"Hi." Matsuda said shyly.

"Matsuda you klutz, you're terrified of both a hollow and a shinigami, but a living stuffed animal doesn't scare you?" Karin giggled.

"Of course not, he's kinda cute." Matsuda protested, blushing shyly. "He's not scary at all!"

Nova blushed too, ducking into his shell again. Then the modsoul came out of his shell and crawled up onto Matsuda's shoulder, burying his face into the boy's hair to try and hide.

"Perhaps Nova should stay with you for a few days." Ryuuzaki suggested.

"Me? Why me??" Matsuda blinked in surprise.

"Nova has the ability to teleport, if a hollow returns to attack you again, he may bring you out of danger. However, do not abuse that privilege." Ryuuzaki warned.

"Th…… thanks I guess. I'll take good care of him until you need him again."

Ryuuzaki nodded and turned to Ichigo. "Lets get moving."

The sun started to set, and as Matsuda watched it the boy thought hard. **Its odd, I thought shinigami would be big and scary. I don't know why, they just are, I was so sure! And I've seen the black haired guy before I know it! And Karin's brother is so nice. He looks really stern but his eyes were so kind. **Matsuda scooped Nova from his shoulder and hugged the modsoul. Nova blushed at the attention, but still said nothing. "Is Nova always this quiet….. eh…… Ichigo right?"

"Yeah, as opposed to my modsoul, Kon. Kon is…… original." Ichigo looked like he was struggling for a polite adjective. "Kon seems to like looking up girls skirts and being hugged by girls with large chests. He's a pervert. All it takes to distract him if he's annoying is to toss him Sports Illustrated's annual swimsuit issue." Ichigo snorted.

Matsuda giggled.

"Here we go, the clinic." Ichigo turned down a side road and they came to a clinic. "I'm hooome!" He called as he came in.

"ICHI-GOOOOOOOOOO!" Ichigo's dad had short hair, five o clock stubble, brown eyes and a near constant ear to ear grin.

Matsuda hid behind Ichigo, because this big grinning man looked like he was going to flying tackle them.

Surprisingly, even though Ichigo reached out his foot to stop him, Ryuuzaki made it first. Isshin got shoved back with a foot print instead of a shoeprint. "Ichigo you're……." Then he spotted Ryuuzaki. "Oh, you." His face became downturned, sour, distrustful even. "What brings you to my door Ryuuzaki? Not another case turned deadly hmm?" Isshin asked shrewdly.

"Dad, how do you know Ryuuzaki? And he came to help me because Karin got hurt at the soccer field."

"Your father and I have had, differences." Ryuuzaki said simply. "A friend of mine, a very kind man, he attended the old man's funeral……"

"Yeah well, Watari had me looking all over for you. I seem to remember you ran off somewhere. And this isn't the place to talk about this, not in front of my son and daughter."

"You are very naïve Isshin." Ryuuzaki nibbled his thumb. "But it is, indeed, a matter you must speak of when you are ready."

Ichigo was looking back and forth between the two.

Isshin growled. "Just be sure to wipe your feet Ryuuzaki. I don't want any mud tracked in my house. Come in, Yuzu had tea boiling. Karin, you and your friend look pretty banged up. I'll take care of you." He turned to Ryuuzaki. "If I spot you near my son again, or your white haired friend near my daughters, or that scarred up blonde punk, you're going to regret it Ryuuzaki. Do I make myself plain?"

"Crystal." Ryuuzaki repeated absently.

"Dad that's too far. Ryuuzaki and Mello are friends." Ichigo growled.

"Ichigo." Isshin snapped. "You are involving yourself in forces that should never have seen the light of day. You would be /wise/ to steer clear of Ryuuzaki, Mello or Mihael or whoever he's calling himself these days, and Near. A good friend of mine died because he was dragged into some serious trouble with them. And trust me, Watari was no fool nor as helpless as he appeared." Isshin spat.

"I am not to blame for what has happened." Ryuuzaki said simply. "Watari was my friend as well, he went into danger knowing that he might not come back." Isshin growled and carried Karin away. Matsuda hurried behind him.

"WHAT is with him?"

"He blames me for the loss of a friend. He believes that I dragged that friend into danger. Truly I did not. However, the bereved tend to find a person to blame."

"I don't understand." Ichigo frowned. "Where did you meet each other before?"

"You haven't noticed."

"……"

"Have you learned about spirit ribbons Ichigo?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't have gotten zangetsu if I couldn't."

"Use it." Ryuuzaki commanded. "And say nothing, he will be very angry at what I have just shown you."

Ichigo closed his eyes. **Dad, dad, dad. Yuzu, no…… that one's Matsu…… dad?** Ichigo paused, jaw dropping.

His father's ribbon was red, ragged as hell, but a very deep red color.

"Dadsa, dadsa, dadsa……"

"Captain Isshin Kurosaki was assigned to surveil the Watari house orphanage when I was five. He served as our doctor for several years right on into the Kira case. He and Watari were close friends, though I never knew if Watari knew who Isshin was exactly. When he heard that Watari, the owner of the orphanage, had died assisting me with the Kira case, and I along with him, he rushed to Task Force Headquarters to find us and bring the old man to Soul Society. I was already gone, I actually evaded shinigami for a month before Urahara scouted me for the Shinigami academy. Watari, on the other hand, had decided to stay put. When your father found Watari, the old man asked him to try and find me and make sure that I got to Soul Society safely. He did not worry for himself, but when your father heard what had happened, he blamed me for bringing Watari into danger. Your father returned to the orphanage to serve under Watari's second in command, Roger. I believe it was out of loyalty to the old man, Isshin has always connected strongly with the people he befriends, very much like you Ichigo. While there he became doctor to two interesting boys under the aliases of Near and Mello. He watched Mello get killed by means of the Deathnote, he watched Mello's best friend and boyfriend, Matt, get shot. And at the Yellowbox Warehouse he was listening on the roof as the case came to an end. I believe his involvement in the case was part of what lead to Isshin Kurosaki retiring from Captaincy, permanently. Whatever the reason, he left Soul Society when the stress finally became too much."

Ichigo gulped. "Dad was a…… captain?"

"Yes, and I believe Urahara was his bedpartner before your mother."

"WHAT THE HELL?? You're kidding, he's /bi?/ Hell that explains a lot." Ichigo snickered. "Like what on earth led me to sleep with a shinigami and a quincy in the same bed." Ichigo cackled.

"Is your biological hormone imbalence the most intelligent conclusion you can reach?" Ryuuzaki asked.

"No, shinigami power, its hereditary isn't it?"

"Yes, however a shinketsu's power remains latent unless something stimulates it. Like Rukia for example."

Ichigo watched the direction his dad had gone. Then he stormed after him. "Ichigo wait."

"DAD." Ichigo noticed that he was bandaging and splinting Karin's legs. Well, a kick would get his attention. Isshin fell back on his butt against the wall. "Don't choose my friends dad. I'm not two." He said with a glare. "Ryuuzaki is /my friend/. I love you dearly dad but you have no right to choose my company for me."

Isshin picked himself up off the floor. "Ichigo." Pow. An identical flying kick was the result, and Ichigo simply stopped it. "You will listen to your elders."

"Nope, sorry dad not this time." Ichigo snapped. "Whatever beef you have with Ryuuzaki is with Ryuuzaki. Don't make me suffer because the two of you have differences."

Ryuuzaki appeared at the doorway, nibbling his thumb as he watched the two of them. "You taught Ichigo-kun to kick just as well as you did me." He observed.

Isshin eyed Ryuuzaki, and Nova hid behind Matsuda, burying his little face in the boy's side trying to hide.

"Ichigo, fine, watch your step with Ryuuzaki. Ryuu, I hear you became quite the champion with hand to hand. Try to keep that foot off of my son, he has a /bad/ temper." Isshin grunted.

"I'll keep that in mind." Ryuuzaki snickered.

* * *

Matsuda made it home around dinner time, just as he turned the corner, he spotted Aizawa waiting for him. "Hey Matsuda, I thought we were going to visit that new arcade this afternoon, where were you all evening?"

"Huh? Oh, Karin was helping me practice Soccer! And then I got a little scraped up, so her dad let me stay for a couple of hours. Do you know how /wild/ her older brother looks? He can kick a grown man over! Karin-sempai's family is /really/ weird!" Matsuda babbled.

Aizawa blinked. "Right."

Matsuda quickly hid Nova behind his back, but not fast enough for Aizawa to spot the plushie. "Is that a toy turtle?"

"Huh? Oh, um…… nope. No stuffed toy at all." Matsuda had the silliest grin on his face.

"Oh really." Nova quickly Shooowoped back into his shell. "Fine then, Matsuda don't forget next time. You're such a dope."

* * *

Near was perched on a nearby roof, watching the two of them pass. "So what do you want me to do?"

"You'll need cover, I think you're going to need a gigai. Besides, with two elementary school students who have that high a level of spiritual pressure? Who knows, a hollow or two might come hunting."

"Copy." Near snapped the phone shut. "Hmmm…… its true what they say about things coming full circle. Wonder what Soichiro and company are doing these days…… this is going to be fun……"


	9. Love

Love

NOTES: HOOOOOO Boy!! Deathnote's Live Action movie is coming to America, May 20 and 21 only, and being released on DVD this September!! YAAAAAY!! CGI Shinigami and hot L action.

Therefore, in its honor, instead of the anime music video, the trailer……

Don't have a heart attack….. XD

www(dot)deathnotefilms(dot)com/trailers(dot)php

Bad joke, very bad. I can't go to it, I'm too far from a theater but if you want to go…..

Have a killer time!!

Okay another bad joke. Lets just……. Skip to the chapter's hanakotoba flower.

**Ambrosia**

アムブロシア

Amuburoshiā

Meaning: Pious

They say the flower Ambrosia was loved by the Greek Gods. They liked it as a gift. It's a great way to show Light your appreciation.

Oooooh man, bad, again……

What is it with me and the jokes tonight?

* * *

"Try it again Light……"

Light glared at the gigai in front of him. Very stylish, not especially conspicuous, no hole, tattoo or mask anywhere.

It kept throwing him back out again.

Near drawled from the entrance. "This is what happens when a human plays at being a shinigami…… no good ever comes of it."

Mello still hadn't come home. "What happened to Mello?" Light asked.

"Hmmm…… well, two hundred years is a long time to wait to lose your virginity."

Light's face twitched. "He waited that long?"

"Yes, now keep trying." Near told him.

Urahara was scanning Light every attempt to enter the gigai he made.

Light growled. "Okay, trying again." Light charged the gigai this time, SHLOOP, he made it in, counting off the seconds…… **thirty, thirty one, thirty two, thirty three……** Light could feel it slipping. NO NO NO!! **thirty seven….. thirty eight…… thirty nine……** Light anticipated it this time and clung. **FOURTY!** Light gasped, managing to take a breath, just one, babump babump…… **NO! Slipping, got. To. Hold. On!!**

Too late. Light was flung backwards out of the gigai. He landed flat on his back, panting and trembling. **It can't be a coincidence, every time I attempt to take the gigai I manage to stay in for 40 seconds before it throws me back out…… 200 years ago, that's how long it took for me to die…… no, **Light stared dejectedly at the ceiling while he caught his breath. **I died the instant I picked up that Deathnote. I never would have thought, that it was possible to live dead. **

"Light……" Urahara suggested. "Why don't you take a break?"

"NO!! I need to manage it……"

"You made great progress, one breath and three heartbeats." Urahara told him. "But you'll only do worse if you use up your energy and don't rest. I think its something about your spirit particles. Oooooh, I wish Nel were still around. She could have helped me out by testing another one."

"What good would she do?"

"Hmm, well for starters, I haven't figured out if it's the fact that you used a Deathnote that's doing it or if its just a matter of Arrancar not being able to use a gigai." Urahara sighed. "The Nikkisashi shinigami who make them are very secretive as to how. I've been a scientist for centuries and I've only /just now/ gotten to see a Deathnote up close. The Seireitei realized how dangerous they were a long time ago, it didn't take a human on the rampage with one to show them that. Kira is part of the reason sharing ones powers with a human is now considered a crime in the Soul Society."

"Goddamned notebook, I should have just burned the damn thing."

"Yes, and yet you were idiotic enough to think that murder could change the world. You did make a good argument Raito, unfortunately." Near was using the Japanese pronounciation of Light's name. "you stuck to your guns instead of conceding the point. Points for persistence though."

Light stormed out. He growled, picking up the nearest book and throwing it the instant he got to his room. Furniture could be heard being kicked around and finally when the tantrum was done Light flopped on his stomach on the tatami mat and wept.

Bare feet stopped by his head. "I heard about what happened."

"Have I mentioned how much I suck?"

"I believe self pity won't do you any good now……"

"La dee do." Light sat up, and a steaming mug was offered him.

"If I remember correctly, hot chocolate was one of the few sweets you did like." Ryuuzaki sat next to Light.

"you know, I never did find out who you really were."

"And…… I don't feel inclined to tell you."

"I don't blame you." Light blew on the cup and took a sip. Then he stared into the mug. He could see his reflection on the glaze of the ceramics, twisted and distorted. He squeezed his eyes shut and looked up at Ryuuzaki. "I took a breath, just one, and then it threw me back out again!" Light sounded about ready to cry.

"How long?"

"The record……" And Light said this bitterly, "was 40 seconds……"

"Ironic." L murmured, leaning against Light. "Chocolate makes you happy you know……" He urged. "its even an aphrodisiac..."

Light took another sip, and tears of frustration fell into the cup. "You know, I brought about the end of the world…… this has to be payback."

"Or, it might just be that the time limit of 40 seconds is so ingrained in your psyche that its affecting your ability to use a gigai and you don't know it. It took me about ten years to actually /use/ a gigai, and even then I couldn't move normally for a long time. And gigai still don't feel like a living body, more like a puppet. Its difficult to adjust to at first, but I still feel like I'm being weighed down when I use one, and when I first stepped into one it was very disorienting, everything seemed to echo and double back on itself."

Ryuuzaki offered. "Its no surprise that you're having trouble, you only just came out of your cocoon a few months ago. If you want the best way to describe it, its as if you're trying to remember how to live again, your arms and legs feel heavy and at first you even need to remember things as simple as making your organs work or moving your fingers and toes."

Light downed half the cup in one gulp and then said quietly. "Just one date, or a day at the park, or a movie. I'd even want to go to school again…." Light shook, "And this…… thing……" Light rearranged the scale cloak. "I can't even take it off…… its like being branded. Forget scarlet letter, this is annoying."

Misa was listening outside the door. **Raito…… Light…… poor baby……** Misa sighed, then straightened up. **Maybe, if I try to use a gigai, and I mess up, it might help Urahara fix Light's gigai? Ooooh, it wouldn't hurt to try but…… he doesn't have one made for me, which would mean I'd have to use……**

The thought of using a gigai that looked like Light instead of her made Misa turn slightly green. **Hmm…… I always wondered what it felt like to be a boy. Ooooooh! I can't wait to see Light's face when I do it instead of him! He'll want to keep trying because he'll know he can do it now! That settles it!! **

Misa used Sonido to sneak down the hallway. **I don't sense getaboshi's or Near's spiritual pressure…… good! I can get in!**

Misa crept in and closed the door behind her. "There it is, they really shouldn't leave their work unattended, stupid boys……"

She eyed the gigai, it was the spitting image of Light as he was 200 years ago. Only this Light's hair was crimson, Misa thought for a moment, "His eyes are probably the same too…… oooooh, I'll show him."

Misa eyed the gigai. "Better take a running start, no big deal…… I'd just have balls instead of boobs……" She tried to reassure herself.

Misa growled, glared, and charged.

She could feel the faux body resisting her efforts to even enter it. **I just have to think fangirl and CLIIIIIING!! **

Misa felt as if her entire body were being pummeled as she fought to even grip the gigai. **I have to!! I HAVE TO!!** She shivered, she struggled, she wrestled. **Oh man, how long has it been, how many seconds…… I need to………** BREATHE!! Misa took in a huge lungful of air, opened her eyes, and fell over.

The spiritual pressure ricocheted off the walls of the shoten and faded to emptiness, like the ripples of a pond. The surges took on the cadence, the frequency of…… **I think I have a heartbeat, yes, yes, yes yesyesyesyes!! ALIVE!! **Misa shrieked mentally in joy as she fought to stay in, to control the gigai, to channel the disorientation into one command, one drive. **STAND!! Come on Misa, you can do this! Light's counting on you!! **

Misa struggled and managed to sit up…… "I think I…… oops, Light's voice. I sound just like him only ditsy. I'd best keep quiet. Maybe I can sonido right to his room and show him… that's probably least messy……" Misa stepped, testing within the room to see if she could Sonido while in a gigai.

No luck. "Okay, sneaking instead……" Misa creeked open the door. It was night time, nobody was around and this part of the shop was empty.

Misa couldn't quite run yet, she could move quickly, but if she tried to run she tripped. **Models move better than boys do…… just pretend you're on the catwalk again!** It took every ounce of physical control that Misa possessed, but she could do it.

"LIGHT I DID IT!! Oh……"

Light and Ryuuzaki were kissing. Not just chaste, or cutie, or a peck on the cheek, but tongue kissing. Clothing was in disarray and Ryuuzaki was minus... **homigod he's naked... **Misa's/Light's face turned red. "I didn't need to see that!!" Misa squeaked, and instead of getting wet like a girl might. **Oh no, not good……**

"Misa??" Light got a deer in headlights expression. "WHAT did you DO?"

"I wanted to try to use the…… just to show you you could…… did you have to pick /now/ to have comfort sex?"

"It wasn't comfort sex!" Light protested. "IT WAS JUST A KISS!!"

"With his underwear off?? Stupid boy body……"

Light almost choked in laughter. "Misa got a booooneeer!!" Light teased.

"Shut up, this is /really/ awkward! I just wanted to show you that you COULD use the gigai!! That's all!! You were so upset, I just wanted to help."

"Its okay Misa, but for now…… you might want to lose the gigai." Misa had started squeezing her legs together to try and hide it.

"Mmmph, awkward and uncomfortable, how /do/ boys do it!" Misa whined.

"You might want to……"

"Okay, let me try……" Misa squeezed her eyes shut. "I can't!! I'm trying to get out of…… and getting seriously distracted. Mom was right, boys do think with their gonads."

"MI-SAAAA!" Light whined. "That's not funny!"

"I know its not!! I can't get out……" Misa whined.

"Oh for heavens sake." Ryuuzaki pulled on a black, blue and red glove with the fireskull rune on it. "Misa hold still……"

"What? Why? What are you going to……" Ryuuzaki thrust a hand forwards to try and eject Misa from the gigai. "EEEEEK!" Misa ducked.

"HOLD STILL!!"

"What are you doing??"

"This glove removes you from the gigai, its either that or grab Kon or Cloud to do it."

"That pervert?? Kon already tried to look under my skirts!!" Misa wailed.

"Then hold STILL!!" Ryuuzaki glared…… raising the glove again.

Heads started popping out of bedrooms, Light followed the two out of the room. "Misa just hold still……"

"Easy for you to say, you don't have a boner and a half naked guy you don't like reaching for your face……" Ryuuzaki's hand connected with Misa's face, the gigai fell limp and Misa was thrown backwards down the hall. "OOOOOOOWWWWWWW!" Misa started to wail.

Urahara started laughing. "Are are, what happened here? Misa did you decide to take my experiment for a test drive?" Urahara giggled, having come in on Misa's 'easy for you to say' comment. "In more ways than one perhaps……?"

Misa snarled, "PERVERT!!" She pulled off a sandal from her feet and chucked it at Urahara. Urahara sidestepped and shunpo'd down the hall with Misa chasing him with her sandal.

"What's going on here??" Near poked his head out of his and Hitsugaya's room, a /blatant/ hickey on his neck. "Shiro-chan and I are trying to get some sleep……"

"I'll bet..." Ryuuzaki said sardonically. "I want to see Misa try a male gigai…… but being able to make it all the way down the hall like that? Impressive."

Misa continued to chase Urahara. "GODDAMNED PERVERT!! I DID NOT DO WHAT YOU THINK I DID!!"

"Woman scorned?" Ichigo asked sleepily.

"Pretty much……"

"Seen that before, night." Ichigo sleepily crept back to his room.

Light looked from Ryuuzaki to the direction Misa had gone, to the gigai on the floor. He actually had a smile on his face. "Did I mention how much I love you?"

"Many times……" A smirk crossed Ryuuzaki's face.

"I think I needed that……" Light chuckled.

"I think you did. I think it would be best if we got some sleep. I'm going to end up transferring to Ichigo's high school, don't worry, when you get the hang of using a gigai you can follow me, I promise."

"You know, I could use that…… come on." Light kissed Ryuuzaki on the cheek and the door closed.

"Shiro-chan?" Near asked from his doorway.

"Yes, I heard the whole incident…"

"Ryuuzaki smiled, for the first time since he was a child, Ryuuzaki smiled."

"He is healing, now come to bed, its after 2 am."

Once more lights went out around the Shoten.

And instead of a crescent, the moon above Karakura was a bright and beautiful full orb, luminous enough to light the two figures curled in each other's arms down below.


End file.
